Lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture started public investigation based on the fact of the death of Ivan Geliyev from Anapa – relatives of the deceased who applied to human rights defenders for legal assistance are convinced that his death was the result of illegal actions by the police officers. Criminal case under Article “Infliction of Death by Negligence” was initiated two and a half months after the incident and, in the opinion of human rights defenders, is investigated extremely inefficiently.
(Ivan Geliyev)
On 30 June 2017 Zalina Geliyeva from Anapa applied to the Krasnodar branch of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture for legal assistance. She informed human rights defenders that her brother Ivan died in the police UAZ vehicle’s cell for apprehended early in the morning on 18 March of this year.
In the course of public investigation human rights defenders managed to clarify some circumstances of the incident. About 4 hours 15 minutes on 18 March of this year Ivan Geliyev arrived at the cross-section of Vladimirskaya street and Shevchenko street of Anapa at the request of his friend who was detained by the Road Patrol Service for drunk driving. Ivan started to argue with the police officers loudly, in response the Road Patrol Service officers applied physical force and hand-cuffed him. Sometime later a Patrol-Guard Service arrived at the scene of the incident, its officers together with their colleagues from Road Patrol Service loaded Geliyev, who offered resistance, to police UAZ vehicle’s cell for apprehended and took him to the Department of the Interior of Russia for Anapa.
Having arrived at the police department the Road Patrol Service officers revealed that Ivan was in unconscious state and gave no signs of life. The medical aid team that arrived at the place of the incident simply had to establish the fact of the death of the apprehended person.
On the same day, 18 March, Zalina Geliyeva applied with the crime report to the Investigative Committee, however, criminal case under Part 1 Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“death by negligence”) was initiated only on 29 May.
According to the conclusion of the forensic medical expert, Ivan Geliyev’s death occurred as a result of “closed blunt trauma of the neck with local hemorrhaging in the area of left cervical neurovascular tract (sinocarotid nodosity), was followed by primary traumatic shock and caused reflectory heart failure which became the direct cause of death… Closed blunt trauma of the neck could be inflicted by impact action of blunt hard object directly in the neck area on the left, created instant danger to life, and based on this is qualified as inflicting grave bodily harm. The trauma occurred shortly before death, in the range from several minutes to several dozens of minutes. This neck trauma has a direct causal relation to the death coming”.
“In our opinion, the investigation of this criminal case is conducted inefficiently, – lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Roman Veretennikov, representing the interests of Zalina Geliyeva, comments. – Besides the fact that it was initiated only two and a half months after the Ivan’s death, the investigators still have not interrogated key witnesses, and some material evidence have not been properly registered. What is more, Senior Investigator Evgeniy Lisyanskiy still has not informed us on our involvement in the criminal case in the capacity of the victim’s representatives, although the period of time, established for that by the law, has already passed. Yesterday we reported all this to Deputy Head of the Territorial Investigative Directorate Sergey Solntsev during the personal appointment”.