Investigator Ivan Sinyapko passed a ruling refusing to open a criminal case based on torture complaints of Tigran Grigoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov at the Anapa police department in December 2015. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture consider this ruling to be illegal and intend to appeal against it.

As we have previously reported, in January 2018 Tigran Grigoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. They claimed that in December 2015 they were apprehended by the Anapa Police Criminal Investigation officers and upon delivery to the local department, they were subjected to battery and electricity tortures.

The applicants informed human rights defenders that in the period from 12 to 13 December 2015 at the Department of Interior for Anapa the Criminal Investigations police officers demanded that they confessed of an assault related to robbery against an elderly couple. According to the applicants, the police officers were beating them and torturing them with electricity.

“Since I refused to confess I was taken to the room with an electric transformer or a welding unit. I was put on the bench with my face down, my hands and feet were tied up. After that they hooked up wires to my wrists and ankles with the help of metal pins and started to energize them, from time to time increasing and decreasing voltage”, – Tigran Grigoryan describes.

Artem Beglaryan remembers that on 12 December 2015, a car stopped near him, five men jumped out of the car and started to beat him up. After he tried to run away from them, they shot him rubber-bullet handgun and hit his back.

“They seized me, put a bag on my head and took me to the forest. There they started to beat me up, demanding that I told them where the money was that was seized during the robbery. At the police department where I was taken next, I refused to sign a confession, after that they tortured me with electricity, having put a gas mask on me”, – that’s how Artem Beglaryan described what was going on.

Grigory Achkasov also reported battery and electricity torture.

In the end, all the apprehended signed full confessions.

At the Temporary Containment Cell of the Department of Interior of Russia the following bodily injuries were registered on Mr Beglaryan: “Swelling of two knee joints and both wrists, bruises on the left and on the side of the back. Right brow swelling, bruises on upper lip”.

According to the log of medical examinations of persons kept in the Temporary Containment Cell, the following injuries were registered on Artem Achkasov: “Bruises on the left arm, bruise in the area of the back”.

On 15 December 2015, Artem Beglaryan submitted a complaint against the actions of the police officers to the Anapa Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office, from there his complaint was redirected to the City Investigative Department.

After two months, on 11 February 2016, a procedural check was initiated based on Beglaryan’s complaint, the result of which was that on 21 February of the same year a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings was issued.

Later on, investigator of the Anapa Investigative Department Ivan Sinyapko, having examined the complaints of Grigory Achkasov and Tigran Grogoryan, also refused to initiate criminal proceedings.

In July 2016, Tigran Grogoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov were declared guilty of robbery and convicted to different terms of imprisonment.

In January 2018, all the three men decided to apply for legal assistance to the Krasnodar branch of the Committee Against Torture, because they learned from the media that a criminal case was initiated against unidentified police officers of the Anapa Police Department concerning abuse of office using violence.

In April 2018, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture successfully insisted on quashing the two-year old refusals to initiate criminal proceedings based on complaints of Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov, issued by investigator Sinyapko, and the materials were returned for additional check.

Human rights defenders also applied to the Prosecutor’s Office demanding to establish the location of the materials of the check based on Tigran Grigoryan’s application, since they were informed by the local Investigative Department that they did not have such a material registered.

Judging by the answers, received from the supervisory authority and the investigative department, the check based on Grigoryan’s application was not conducted at all.

Yesterday, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture managed to obtain a copy of the last procedural ruling passed by investigator Sinyapko. It turned out that one month ago, on 16 July, he passed a ruling refusing to initiate a criminal case based on complaints of Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov.

“Investigator Sinyapko refers to the judgment on conviction, passed by the court with regard to our applicants, and treats their evidence with a grain of salt since they are the interested party. And, in essence, based on this he refuses to open a criminal case based on torture complaint, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Romanov comments. – However, when passing the “refusal”, the investigator has not performed many activities required for establishing the truth. For example, he never established the time of actual apprehension of Achkasov and Beglaryan, did not question the cellmates of our applicants and Temporary Containment Cell officers who registered bodily injuries on Beglaryan, did not question the witnesses of his apprehension, Beglaryan still has not been questioned with the participation of the lawyer and the interpreter. All this, as well as numerous procedural violations by invrstigator Sinyapko do not allow us to consider the check that he conducted to be effective, that is why we will insist on its resuming”.
 
As we have previously reported, on 23 November 2017, a criminal case was opened in Krasnodar Territory based on the fact of abuse of office with the use of violence by the police officers from Anapa. Four citizens from Anapa are accusing the criminal police investigators of tortures, including with electricity, at the local police department in December 2015. One of the applicants claimed that the police officers raped him with a stick. The criminal case is opened after eleven refusals to initiate criminal proceedings were issued, part of them were issued by the same investigator, Ivan Sinyapko.