For a long time we didn’t make this accident known for fear of hindering the investigation. And that, in its turn, contrary to our hopes, was not actually going on for two months. The situation was put into motion only after the lawyers of Interregional NGO «Committee Against Torture» addressed the head of regional Office of Criminal Investigations during the personal appointment. After that the criminal proceedings based on the fact of severe beating of Orsk citizen were initiated at last.

On March 24, 2014 a railway man Dmitry Pakhomov applied to the Orenburg regional branch of the Interregional NGO «Committee Against Torture» seeking legal help and informed about an accident that happened to him.  According to Dmitry ten days before, on March 14, about 11 p.m. he was coming home from work. He already passed the Railroad Square and crossed the road when a policeman approached him near the bus stop and asked to come to police car for personal identity check.  Two more policemen were near the car. Pakhomov asked the policemen to present themselves and show their IDs, however instead of that one of the policemen kicked and hit him several times, and two others handcuffed him. The police officers opened the door of the police car and pushed their victim inside, face down between the rows of seats. Chief among them with a shoulder strap of Senior Lieutenant sat on the back seat and put his feet on the lying captive. The two policemen sat in front and the car started to move.

As Dmitry remembered, he demanded that he was put on the seat, but received several hits in response. His attempts to raise the head to look in the torturer’s face were also stopped by hits in the head. Several times he passed out, and when he showed signs of life he immediately got hit in the head and passed out again. In one of these intervals between the blackouts the chief of the group threatened to kill Pakhomov if he did not lie still. Dmitry regained conscience once again from someone touching him: someone was ferreting about in the pockets of his jacket.  The car stood still. Dmitry sharply writhed himself face up and saw that a man in a white knitted hat was rummaging him. Having noticed that the victim regained consciousness the stranger covered his face with the palm of his hand and stormed out of the car. The chief got into his seat straight away and again knocked the victim unconscious by a hit in the nose. When Pakhomov regained conscience once again the car was moving. When he asked where he was being taken, the chief police officer answered «we’ll just drown you in a lake» and hit him another time. Dmitry recovered his senses when he was by the side of the road, outside the car. Two men were holding him, taking him by the arm. The captive was out of any strength to lift his head and look around. His hands were still handcuffed.  Dmitry was kicked shins from behind, so he fell on his knees. At that moment he thought they were going to kill him right there. But something altered the plans of the assailants and they uncuffed Pakhomov and vanished, leaving him in the road in pitch darkness in subconscious state. During the first few minutes Dmitry could not understand where he was. He bathed his face in the snow to clear up his conscience. There was not a light around. As it turned out later, he was left in the vicinity of gardens away from Stepnoy settlement where there is indeed a lake – a sand quarry filled with water. In the pocket of his trousers Dmitry found his mobile phone intact and that became his salvation. He phoned his wife. In 2 a.m. an ambulance delivered Pakhomov to the reception ward of the city hospital.

Doctors registered multiple injuries of the patient: closed craniocerebral injury, brain concussion, closed nasal fracture, multiple bruises and injuries of face and soft tissues of his head, contusion of wrist joints.

And it is not a report from the raucous 1990s and not gang wars either – according to railwayman from Orsk he was disfigured by policemen without any reasons that could be explained logically in the slightest degree.
  
Having recovered a little from this experience, on March 17 Dmitry filed a crime report with the Prosecutor’s Office of Sovetsky district of Orsk city. But a week passed and there was not even a telephone call from that supervision agency. On March 24 he applied with the same report to the local Investigative department, again, with no result.

At present time we have managed to establish the whole picture of the state response to its citizen seeking for help. The hospital immediately sent to police departments, as befits, a report on criminal nature of injuries of the patient, including the Line Department at Orsk railway station. The Line group worked in a timely manner – all honour to them. Without delay, in the morning of March 15, they came to Pakhomov’s home, questioned him, came to the crime scene together with him, performed photo shooting, gathered traces of blood for expertise, and, having established that the crime scene is located beyond the limits of their territory, transferred the collected material in the Internal Affairs Department for Orsk. From the Department is was transferred to the police department № 2 (Sovetsky district, Orsk city). District policemen, having determined that it could be about police crime, transferred the collected material to the Orsk city Investigative Department.

So by the time Pakhomov’s report was received for initiation of proceedings investigator Kirill Voronov had enough of documents available which were evidence of material element of offence. And within three days period assigned by law for instituting criminal proceedings or refusal to initiate criminal proceedings the investigator could make a relevant decision. But he did neither of these two options. On March 28 he decided to transfer the crime report even further along the jurisdiction – in the Orsk city Investigative Department For Transport, which is a different subdivision of the Investigative Committee of RF. From there the report «travelled» to Orenburg Investigative Department For Transport. And only after all this protracted ordeal on April 17 it was returned to the Orsk city Investigative Department as transferred without reasonable grounds. And it was registered in the Reports Registration Book even later – on April 21.  However, the pre-investigation inquiry did not start even then. On May 5, 2014 at the hearing examining Dmitry Pakhomov’s complaint against omission to act from the part of investigating authority it turned out that the pre-investigation inquiry materials did not contain a single document on any investigative actions.

Only after the lawyers of the Orenburg regional branch of the Committee Against Torture addressed the head of regional Office of Criminal Investigations Sergey Kolotov during the personal appointment with him on May 30 did investigator Kirill Voronov initiate criminal proceedings for offence under Article 286 (3) of Russian Criminal Code («exceeding official powers»).

Human rights defenders intend to render legal assistance to Dmitry Pakhomov during all the stages of the investigation.