The Orenburg Office of the INGO Committee Against Torture received information that investigator Evgeny Shirshov that worked in the Gaysky district prosecutor’s office of Orenburg region had a previous conviction. According to Article 40.1 paragraph 2 point 4 of the Law “On the Prosecution Service of the Russian Federation” a person may not be hired for work in prosecution bodies and continue his or her work there if he or she has a previous conviction.

    A statement concerning this fact was forwarded to the prosecutor’s office of Privolzhsky Federal District. It tasked the prosecutor’s office of Orenburg region to carry out an inquiry which established that the law had been violated when the investigator of the Gaysky district prosecutor’s office had been hired. In order to justify itself the prosecutor’s office of Orenburg region mentioned the fact that its HR department when hiring Mr. Shirshov did not possess any information which could prevent them from hiring that person.

    Meanwhile it is known that before Mr. Shirshov joined the prosecution service, an inquiry as to his compliance with Article 40.1 of the Law “On the RF Prosecution Service” had been carried out in the course of which they had inquired for his conviction from databases of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs and Department of Internal Affairs of Orenburg region. It is remarkable that the databases did not provide any information about Mr. Shirshov convictions. And the investigator himself when filling in the necessary forms concealed his previous conviction. At the moment he has been discharged, as usual, because of his own will. But before that he had worked in the prosecution service for three years and could continue doing so, concealing his past. Taking into account that such a situation happened to Mr. Shirshin, its is highly probable that there are other prosecution officials who continue their work hiding their past and the information center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not possess any information about their convictions. This incident once again spoiled the image of law enforcement agencies and demonstrated that the system requires very high control on the part of the State and society.