Nizhny Novgorod citizen Andrey Dvortsov complained to human rights defenders of the policemen who, according to his words, beat him severely when they were arresting him. The policemen in their turn claim that the man was showing resistance and they used force according to the law. The Investigation Committee already initiated a criminal case against Mr Dvortsov with regard to his using force against the representative of the authorities, and his application on being beaten by the policemen is currently being checked. The lawyers of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture have already started a public investigation of this incident.
On 26 September 2016 Manshuk Dvortsova from Druzhny settlement in Nizhny Novgorod region applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture with a report on using force against her husband, Andrey, by the policemen on 9 August this year.
As Mr Dvortsov clarified later on this day around 8 p.m. he was outside in the street with two friends. The man had drunk some alcohol before that. According to Andrey, when they were approached by three policemen who started to ask something, he ran away.
– One of the policemen caught me and performed a reap. I fell on the ground and was handcuffed from behind. After that they were beating me for a minute or so. At some point I fell unconscious, – Dvortsov remembers.
Andrey explained that he was working as a plumber. That day he was coming back from work wearing a uniform where he had a knife in one of the sleeves which is necessary for his work. As Andrey assumes, the reason for a sudden rage of the policemen was that when one of them was catching him by the sleeve and handcuffing him, he cut his hand.
Andrey spent the night at the police department. The next day he was given a statement with two fines for 500 rubles each for appearing drunk in a public place and disobedience of the legal order of the policeman.
On the same day he recorded the received injuries in the local first-aid station: brain concussion, bruises on the face, left earflap, shoulders, anterior abdominal wall, left forearm, left scapular region, left cnemis, lumbar region, left knee-joint area, right hip, scratch marks on the right knee-joint area and parietal region.
On the next day Andrey’s condition got worse and he had to spend eight days in city hospital No. 39 of Nizhny Novgorod. After that he spent over three weeks having ambulant therapy.
During his treatment Andrey learnt about initiating a criminal case against him for attacking a policeman.
“We started conducting our own public investigation of this incident and it is too early to talk about its results. However, we are troubled by the fact that the investigators had already initiated a case against Mr Dvortsov and formed a certain opinion of this story though there are serious contradictions on the policemen’s testimonies, while his own report is still at the stage of the pre-investigation check, – lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Evgeny Chilikov, representing the interests of Andrey Dvortsov, points out. – However, we hope that the official investigation of this incident will be performed fully, comprehensively and impartially. In our turn, we will continue performing our own public investigation, establishing all the circumstances of the incident”.