The Preobrzhensky District Court of Moscow satisfied the application in the interests of Lyudmila Fadeyeva and compelled the Investigative Committee for the fourteen time to check her complaint against the actions of the court security guard – Lyudmila claims that during the personal search in 2015 at the Moscow City Court the guards removed the bra from her using violence, as well as enchained her in the uncomfortable position to the ring embedded in the wall for more than an hour.
Lyudmila Fadeyeva applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance in December 2015. At that time, she was a defendant in the criminal case related to fraud with real estate and was in custody. At that time she was 60. She told human rights defenders that on 19 August 2015 she was taken to the building of the Moscow City Court for participation in the court hearing regarding the motion of the investigator on extending the period of custody.
According to Lyudmila, before the court hearing in the course of the personal search in the basement of the Moscow City Court the officers of the Security Regiment and Convoy of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Interior of Russia for Moscow demanded that she took off her bra. Fadeyeva refused, referring to the fact that she was wearing a transparent blouse. In response, the convoy officers applied physical force against her, handcuffed her and removed her bra.
According to Fadeyeva, after that she was taken to the room for familiarization with the materials of the criminal case and other documents, even though she did not ask for that. There were two writing desks in this room, near each of them there were metal rings, mounted in the wall.
“My hands were joined behind my back and handcuffed, and one hand was fastened to the metal ring embedded in the wall. I was outraged and informed the convoy officers that I was a disabled person of group 1. I was actually chained to the wall and did not have any opportunity either to move or to sit down. My hands felt numb, I felt hypertension spasm coming”, – Lyudmila Fadeyeva recalled.
After the court hearing, based on the results of which the period of custody for Fadeyeva was extended, she was taken to Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.6 in Moscow where she was registered with the following bodily injuries: “Hematoma of left forearm, hematoma of the left shoulder”.
With regard to the incident, Lyudmila applied to the Investigative Committee of Russia, where her application was forwarded to the Preobrazhensky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Moscow. Three months later a procedural check was started based on her complaint, based on the results of which the investigators repeatedly issued refusals to initiate criminal proceedings “due to absence of the event of crime”.
In October 2018, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture successfully insisted on transferring the materials of the check for examination of the Investigative Department for the Eastern Administrative District of the Chief Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Moscow. However, investigators for major cases were not in a hurry to perform all necessary checking activities, which the human rights defenders repeatedly requested, instead they repeatedly issued identical refusals to open a criminal case. At the same time, immediately after appealing against these rulings by human rights defenders, the head of the investigative body or the district prosecutor’s office quashed the illegal ruling of the investigator, allegedly, at their own initiative. A month later, the investigator once again issued a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings, which differed from the previous one only in date.
Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture appealed against another one, the thirteenth, refusal with regard to Fadeyeva’s application at the Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow.
On 18 December 2019, this application was satisfied. In her ruling, judge Zoya Orlova pointed out: “In the course of the check, investigator D.A.Chiknaykin did not perform the necessary checking activities necessary for establishing all the circumstances of applying physical force against L.Yu.Fadeyeva, the necessity of which was emphasized by Fadeyeva’s representatives in their motions. Investigator of the Investigative Department for the Eastern Administrative District of the Chief Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Moscow D.A.Chiknaykin did not perform an additional check with regard to the indicated material of the check, did not execute the instructions of the acting head of the Investigative Department for the Eastern Administrative District, did not execute the instructions of the first deputy prosecutor for the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow on conducting all the necessary checking activities”.