The criminal case of local entrepreneur Oleg Krayushkin’s tortures at the local police department is transferred from the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department to the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region. From now on investigator of the 1st Department for Major Cases Anna Molodtsova will be in charge of the investigation. In the course of the telephone conversation with Oleg Krayushkin she settled a date of face-to-face confrontation between him and the police officers who are connected to the case as witnesses.
It is worth noting that previously human rights defenders repeatedly complained about non-performance of the authorities of the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region, due to that the head of this department as well as the investigators have been already subjected to disciplinary action. However, this measure did not bring any result.
Continuing systematic non-performance of the investigator and the superiors of the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region forced lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Ilya Khorshev to once again apply to head of the regional Investigative Directorate Andrey Vinogradov.
In his response Vinogradov informed the human rights defender about the resumption of proceedings in the criminal case, and about subjecting the executives of the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department to disciplinary action for the violations that they committed. Head of the regional Investigative Department also pointed out that the «investigation of the criminal case is far from difficult».
Despite such a statement and the fact that this criminal investigation progress is monitored by the regional Investigative Directorate, the investigators of the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department have extended the monthly period of pre-trial investigation twice already without having conducted any investigative activities at all.
With regard to this on 1 July the lawyers of the Committee for Prevention of Torture applied to head of the Investigative Committee of Russia Aleksandr Bastrykin with a complaint about the systematic non-performance and procedural violations of the investigators and superiors of the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department.
As we have previously reported, in September 2012 businessman from Pavlovo city Oleg Krayushkin applied to the INGO «Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance. According to Oleg, on 11 September 2012 he was subjected to torture by police officers in one of the rooms of the Pavlovskiy police department following numerous demands to confess to stealing a sawmill. The policemen forced the applicant to take off his boots and to kneel – and started hitting him with a rubber truncheon on his feet. The applicant also stated that he was also occasionally hit in the ears, face, and groin area. After about three hours of torture the officers, having failed to obtain a confession statement, took Oleg to a temporary detention facility of Sosnovskoye district police department and after a few days released him. A criminal case was initiated against the entrepreneur, however, it collapsed soon, and real culprits were brought to justice.
Despite the evidence of the elements of crime the investigator failed to open the criminal case for a year, having issued eight unlawful refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. Only after the members of the Committee Against Torture organized a psychophysiological study on polygraph detector, which confirmed that Oleg’s words are true, as well as initiated the entrepreneur’s personal appointment with the head of the regional Investigative Committee Vladimir Stravinskas, a criminal case under item «а» part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation («exceeding official powers using violence») was initiated on 16 August 2013.
However, the victim himself together with the human rights defenders were deeply concerned by the snail-paced progress of the investigation: initial investigative actions with Krayoushkin were performed only in April 2014.
Up to the present moment the criminal case has been suspended eight times. In addition, if these previous rulings were denounced by the Prosecutor’s Office and the management of the Investigative Department independently, the last three times the investigation was resumed only after the complaints of human rights defenders.
«Definitely, we are satisfied that our numerous complaints are at last heard, and now the investigator for major cases of the regional Investigative Committee’s Investigative Directorate is instructed to investigate this case. It was obvious for us that while the Pavlovskiy Interdistrict Investigative Department is in charge of the case it will never go to court. We hope that the new investigator conducts an efficient investigation, and the guilty police officers will be charged and face trial», – lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Ilya Khorshev, representing the interests of Oleg Krayushkin, commented.