Vladimir Pozdnykhov, a citizen of Nizhny Novgorod, applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture; he claims that this year, on the 4th of May he was beaten by the detained escort officer in Nizhny Novgorod regional court. Immediately after this Pozdnykhov reported the crime to the Investigating Committee, but so far he knows nothing about the fate of his own report.
(In the photo: Vladimir Pozdnykhov)
As Vladimir Pozdnykhov told human rights activists on the 4th of May of this year after another hearing in court (where a criminal case against him was considered), the detained escort officer beat him. “When the detained escort officer was escorting me from the court room to transit me back to the investigatory isolation ward, he suddenly started to beat me on the head. First he hit me hard with the back of his hand on my glasses, the glasses fell on the staircase, the eye glasses frame cut my skin in the area of my nose and I got scratch marks made by glasses’ temples behind my ears. Then he hit me with his fists; finally, I got clours and bruises on my head, my nose and lips were badly damages”, – Pozdnykhov describes the details of the incident in Nizhny Novgorod regional court.
Vladimir himself believes that it was the revenge of the detained escort officer for the fact that in the course of the previous hearing he demanded that the detained escort officer stopped reading his personal documents.
Coming back from the court to the investigatory isolation ward, Pozdnykhov registered his bodily injuries. According to the medical examination statement in the pre-trial detention center Vladimir Pozdnykhov had: “slight scratch marks on the wings of his nose, on his right ear and wrists of his both arms”. Besides, Vladimir reported the crime to the Investigating Committee.
When Pozdnykhov’s measure of restraint was changed from detention in custody to travel restrictions, he applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture asking for legal advice in person.
“We started a public investigation based on Vladimir’s complaint, we received medical documents where the bodily injuries of our applicant were registered, and we interrogated the witnesses who saw those injuries that Pozdnykhov had later in the court. In the nearest time we are planning to study the materials that the Investigating Committee has on checking based on Pozdnykhov’s complaint, but now we are worried about the fact that it is already four months since Vladimir has been waiting for the official reply and still recevied nothing”, – comments Albert Kuznetsov, the lawyer from Committee for the Prevention of Torture representing the interests of Vladimir Pozdnykhov.