Investigative group will be dealing with investigation of the criminal case with regard to abuse of office against Aram Gambaryan from Krasnodar. Deputy Head of the regional Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee Sergey Solntsev informed the lawyers about its creation. As we previously reported, Mr Gambaryan from Krasnodar claimed that on 21 March 2017 armed people in masks, shouting “FSB is working!” grabbed him out of his car right in the center of the city, after that they took him to the woods, where they tortured him for six hours demanding that he provided evidence on the case of attempted assassination of a local entrepreneur.
On 30 May 2017 Aram Gambaryan applied to the Krasnodar branch of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture for legal assistance. He reported that on 21 March 2017 at about 10 a.m. his car was blocked in the busy street by two other vehicles, out of which several armed masked men rushed out shouting “FSB is working!”, grabbed him out of his car, handcuffed him and put him in their mini-van.
– In the mini-van they put a knitted cap or a bag on my head and started to beat me up all over. In response to my questions on who are they and what they want these people answered that they were FSB and Moscow Criminal Police officers, – Aram remembered.
According to Mr Gambaryan, in about fifty minutes he was taken to the woods where the battery continued: “I was thrown on my back and they started to kick against all the parts of my body, specifically targeting the area of thighs and knees, as well as the right shoulder. They took my pants and underwear off me. A man sat on my chest and started to question me. He was very heavy and I had troubles to breath under his weight. Besides, they were continuously pouring water on my face, which made me gasp and gave trouble speaking”.
According to Aram, he was also beaten up by electric shocker in the genital area, armpits, under his jaw, he was threatened with murder – they even threw him in the pit and started to put soil over him; several times they brought the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger, after that they shot at his ear. According to his feeling, tortures lasted for about six hours – all this time the torturers were demanding that he provided evidence on the case of attempted assassination of a local entrepreneur.
During twelve months, the investigators eight times refused to initiate criminal proceedings based on Gambaryan’s torture complaint.
Only on 10 April 2018 investigator Vladimir Sorokin initiated criminal case under elements of crime provided in item “a” of Part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence”). Aram Gambaryan was declared a victim, and lawyers with the Committee Against Torture were accepted in the case as his representatives.
Today, lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Roman Veretennikov, representing the interests of the victim, received a copy of the ruling on establishing the investigative group for investigating this criminal case.
“Taking into account the complexity and the necessity of conducting a significant amount of investigative and procedural activities in the criminal case, it is necessary to create an investigative group involving the officers of investigative sections of the investigative department for the area, located on the territory of the Karasunksy and Zapadny Districts of Krasnodar, Seversky and Ust-Labinsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory”, – it is said in the document.