Today, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan adjourned examination of appellate appeal against the non-guilty verdict with regard to Head of the Criminal Investigation of the Neftekamsk police Ilvir Sagitov and his subordinate, Senior Investigative Officer Radim Khairullin, who were charged with electricity torture of apprehended Vener Mardamshin. The examination of the complaint is deferred to 4 September due to failure of defense lawyer of convict Ilvir Sagitov to show up at court.

As we have previously reported, on 22 November 2016 Vener Mardamshin applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures asking for legal assistance. He said that on 10 November 2016 he was captured by four men; they handcuffed his hands, put a plastic bag on his head, pushed into the car and drove him away in the unknown direction. According to Vener, it turned out later that those were the policemen who took him to the local police department. After that they started beating him using truncheons and an electric shocker forcing him to confess to kidnapping of a woman. But the policemen’s attempts to get a confession to the committed crime from Vener were unsuccessful and they released him after taking an explanatory statement from him where he stated that he had been drinking alcohol with friends and had no claims to the policemen.

According to Mardamshin, an acquaintance of him helped him to get home. Vener’s wife called an ambulance, and the man was taken to the hospital in Neftekamsk, where he was receiving treatment until 21 November, and then was transferred to the hospital of Ufa. Totally, Mardamshin spent twenty seven days receiving hospital treatment. The doctors of Neftekamsk hospital registered the following diagnosis in the discharge summary of the sick person: “Concomitant injury, closed craniocerebral injury. Brain concussion. Concussion of cervical vertebrae. Closed compression fracture of the body of vertebra L1. Closed (old?) fracture of L1 spine vertebra on the right. Concussion of the left side of the pelvis. Both kidneys contusion. Gross hematuria. Numerous concussions, bruises, scratch marks and pinpoint wounds of the soft tissues of the head, body, upper and lower limbs. Post-traumatic ischemic neuropathy of radial nerve of the left forearm. Post-traumatic ischemic neuropathy of the fibular nerve of the left lower leg”.

On 28 December 2016 the first person accused of the crime under items “a, b” of Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation («abuse of office using violence and special equipment») appeared in this case – Head of the Criminal Investigation of the Neftekamsk police Ilvir Sagitov. At the present time he is in custody at the Detention Facility.

On 25 July 2017 his subordinate became the second accused under the same article – Senior Investigative Officer of the Department for Crimes Against Property of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Department of the Interior for Neftekamsk Radim Khairullin. Travel restrictions are imposed upon him.

On 20 September 2017 investigators of the major cases department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Bashkortostan completed investigating this criminal case. After the indictment was approved by First Deputy Prosecutor of the Republic Oleg Gorbunov, it was sent to the Neftekasmsky City Court for examination on its merits.
 
As lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Evgeny Litvinov pointed out, the investigation did not leave the illegal actions of other police officers unattended – the materials of the criminal case against them were severed.
 
Examination of the criminal case against Ilvir Sagitov and Radim Khairullin started on 1 November 2017 at the Neftekamsky City Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan. In the framework of judicial investigation 15 court hearings were conducted, during which about 40 witnesses were questioned. In the course of the court hearing the defendants did not plead guilty.

During the discussions, State Prosecutor Aleksandra Malikova considered that the defendants’ guilt of the charged crimes is proven and asked the court to sentence Sagirov to six years prison term, and Khairullin – to four and a half.

Lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Evgeny Litvinov, taking into account the victim’s stance, asked the court to sentence the defendants to maximum possible prison term under the charges brought.

In their final statement neither of the defendants acknowledged their guilt, having repeated the arguments which were put forward previously during the discussions, that they did not torture Mardamshin and did not see him on that day at all. With regard to this, they asked the court to pass an absolution.

On 4 June of this year, judge of the Neftekamsky City Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan Ibragim Dautov declared that Ilvir Sagitov and Radim Khairullin are not involved in committing of the charged crime.
 
The court established that Vener Mardamshin was indeed inflicted the bodily injuries indicated in the expert examinations. At the same time, the court deemed that non-involvement of the defendants-police officers is proved by the evidence of their relatives and colleagues, as well as by their call details. With regard to this, judge Dautov decided to return the case to the Investigative Committee for resuming the investigation and identifying the culprits. Ilvir Sagitov was released in the court room, and Radim Khairullin’s travel restrictions were lifted.

State Prosecutor, human rights defenders and Vener Mardamshin’s defense lawyer did not agree to the absolution and appealed against it at the appeals instance, regarding that during the court proceedings the defendants’ fault was completely proven and that the court of the first instance passed its ruling, incorrectly interpreting the evidence of the prosecution.
 
Today, in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan the examination of appellate appeals of all the prosecution’s participants was planned, however, the court hearing was rescheduled for 4 September, because defendant Ilvir Sagitov’s defense lawyer did not show up in court.