Today, on 13 May 2015, the complaint of lawyer Yevgeny Goubin against the actions of senior investigator for major cases under the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Igor’ Krasnov has been examined in the Basmanny District Court of Moscow. As we have previously reported, due to the investigator’s prohibition the lawyer engaged by the Committee Against Torture has not been able to visit Zaur Dadayev (who stated that he had confessed of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination under torture) in Lefortovo pre-trial detention center for almost two months. Based on the results of today’s examination the court dismissed the complaint.
As we have previosuly reported, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Zaur Dadayev, involved in the case of Boris Nemtsov assassination, officially applied to the Moscow office of the interregional nongovernmental organization «The Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance in connection with illegal violence which they were subjected to.
However, having initiated a public investigation, human rights defenders immediately faced difficulties and actual reluctance of the official investigative authorities to conduct the check based on the statement of the two men, suspected of Boris Nemtsov’s assassination, about tortures by law-enforcement officers.
Along with that, the investigative authorities are doing everything in their power to prevent human rights defenders, which the applicants turned for legal support to, from checking the above-mentioned information on torture.
Thus, on 13 April 2015 lawyer Goubin received a written direct prohibition from investigator Krasnov: «Your application on «prompt issue of permit for unrestricted attendance» of defendant Z.Sh.Dadayev has been considered. Hereby I inform you that defendant Z.Sh.Dadayev did not provide his consent or request for your involvement in the criminal case as his lawyer, for which reason there is no grounds for issuing a permit for attending the defendant».
«The Basmanny Court agreed with the arguments of the investigation and did not take into account obvious facts. In the first place, the fact that lawyer Goubin is not going to be engaged in the criminal case in the capacity of Dadayev’s defense lawyer, but is intending to represent Dadayev’s interests as a victim only in case if his torture complaints are confirmed, – emphasizes head of the Moscow branch of the Committee Against Torture Sergey Babinets. – As to Dadayev’s wish to obtain legal assistance from the Committee Against Torture, he repeatedly stated this, the last time he explicitly mentioned it in court».
Lawyer Yevgeny Goubin: «This is just a mockery of the law and the common sense. The court not only refused to declare illegal the procedure of obtaining a permission from the investigator in order for the lawyer to meet his confident in the pre-trial detention center, but in fact deprived Dadayev the right to obtain legal assistance. My argument that I’m only intending to render legal assistance to Zaur Dadayev in relation to his torture complaint and not in the capacity of his defense lawyer in relation to the criminal case has been ignored by the court. Moreover, the court in its decision actually mentioned that I could render legal assistance to Dadayev only as a defense lawyer in relation to the criminal case, which directly violates the constitutional rights of my client. We certainly will appeal against this decision at the Moscow City Court».