Yesterday, on 28 January 2015, lawyers of Interregional Non-governmental organization «The Committee Against Torture» presented a lecture for citizens of Niznny Novgorod «If a police officer comes up to you» in the framework of «Open courtroom – providing access to justice» project execution.

In the course of the activity the Committee Against Torture Nizhny Novgorod branch Investigations Department inspectors Sergey Romanov and Ilya Khorhsev told the audience about the structure of the Ministry of Interior, what rights and obligations police officers have and what is regulating their work.

Human rights defenders also told the audience about basic rights and obligations of citizens during communication with the police officers, actions in case of detention by law enforcement officers were explained. The lecturers demonstrated a presentation based on provisions of the federal law «On police» and the Code of Administrative Offences, and also showed two training videos.

In the end of the lecture the lawyers of the Committee Against Torture answered the questions of the audience.

«Citizens were mainly interested in the procedure of interaction with the district police officer, and issues related to registration according to the place of residence, appeal against actions of officials and self-defense against crimes. We think that the lecture will help resolving the motives of police officers’ actions and improve understanding between citizens and representatives of law enforcement agencies. We tried to get across that correct communication with police officers together with clear understanding of one’s rights and possibilities of their execution will allow avoiding unpleasant consequences when interacting with authorities’ representatives», – Sergey Romanov emphasized.