Five months since the start of the check of complaint about the battery of the Iritov family by the police officers during apprehension of head of the non-governmental organization “Volny aul” (Free Mountain Village) Aslan Iritov and his brother Beslan, the victims managed to obtain access to all the materials on this application, including the video records of the apprehension. Despite the fact that four family members got various severity injuries, the investigators do not want to open a criminal case against the police officers.
(Aslan Iritov and Beslan Iritov)
As we have previously reported, in November 2017 the Iritov family from the Kabardino-Balkar Republic applied to the Committee Against Torture: they reported to have been beaten up by the police officers in their own yard. Four members of the family got various severity personal injuries: Aslan Iritov and his daughter Angelica – of mild severity, and his wife and brother – of medium severity.
According to the Iritov family, on 31 October of this year, people in the police uniform and in civilian clothes came to the yard of their house, located in Volny Aul District of Nalchik, and demanded to bring the head of household forward to them. The women, gathered in the yard, started to resent the unbidden guests and asked the officers to present their IDs or leave. Brother of the head of the household, Beslan Iritov, came out to the yard and expressed his outrage at the fact that the intruders were videotaping their yard with a video camera and attempted to get them out of the household yard.
According to the members of the family, head of the household, disabled Aslan Iritov, was still inside then. He does not have the hands on both arms, due to that he was dressing for a long time and came out in the yard the last. At that moment the armed masked people were already running in. Aslan was knocked down, his clothes were torn, he was stricken down to the ground, his head was pressed against the asphalt and his throat was squeezed. Aslan also hit his head against the edge stone when he was falling. The police officers hit his brother, Beslan, against the temple, and tied him up, as well. Then the brothers were taken out in the street and brought inside the mini-van. According to Aslan, while they were being carried, he was dropped and dragged along the ground several meters, and Beslan’s rib was broken during this operation.
The brothers were delivered to the city police department. At the department Beslan felt bad and the police officers had to call the ambulance for him. The doctors, arrived after the call, diagnosed the bruises and assumption of the fracture and told to deliver the detained to the first-aid station. On the same day the brothers were released.
According to the witnesses of the incident at Iritov’s house, women caught it bad, as well. For example, Aslan’s wife, Marina Iritova, had her finger broken, and his daughter Angelica, was hit with her face against the floor and her nose was damaged.
Following the incident, the Iritov family applied to the Investigative Committee. However, the investigators initiated criminal proceedings against the Iritov brothers themselves under item 1 Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“applying violence against the police officer”).
On the other hand, investigator of the Nalchik Investigative Department Mr Bezrokov did not detect anything illegal in the actions of the police officers. In his ruling to refuse to open a criminal case, he describes applying force by the Special Police Force officer against Angelica Iritova in the following manner: “In addition, physical force was also applied against A.A.Iritova. Special Police Force officer held her by her clothes in the area of the shoulders and threw her aside, at the same time, these actions were not aimed at inflicting any bodily injuries to her, but at removing her from the incident scene…”
How it was in reality, you can see on the following footage .
Investigator writes nothing at all about the circumstances of inflicting medium severity personal injuries to Marina Iritova, who had her finger broken by the police officers.
“Against this background the investigation of a criminal case against the Iritov brothers who are charged with attacking the police officers, looks altogether differently. The criminal case was opened right away, on the very day when the application was submitted. The investigators still find nothing strange in serious discrepancies between the police officers’ testimony and the incident video recording. There are also simply absurd conclusions, for example, that disabled Aslan Iritov, who does not have hands, was allegedly choking the police officer, squeezing his neck with his fingers. And for some strange reason, these conclusions of the investigation satisfied the prosecutor’s office, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Magomed Alamov comments. – If we assess today’s stance of the investigative and supervisory authorities based exclusively on the facts, it does certainly look completely biased”.
At the present time lawyers with the Committee Against Torture intend to appeal against the investigator’s ruling and apply to the superiors of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic in order to insist on objective investigation of the incident.