The Leninsky District Court of Orenburg passed a ruling to collect three hundred rubles from the Ministry of Finance of Russia for the benefit of Mushfig Guliyev with regard to the fact that he was groundlessly accused of murder of the Orenburg entrepreneur and his son. Despite the fact that Mushfig and two more involved in this case complained of torture when being forced to provide the testimony required by the investigative authorities, the criminal case has not been opened until now. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture will appeal against this court ruling in the part of the awarded compensation.
As we have previously reported, on 1 June 2018, Mushfig Shykhaliyev and Ramin Shakhmarov from Abdulino town applied to the Orenburg branch of the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. The men reported that on 7 March 2018 they were apprehended one by one by the police officers, who, without explaining the reasons, delivered them to Orenburg to the building of the Department of the Interior of Russia for the Orenburg region, located at address: Dubitskogo St., 2.
There, according to the applicants, the police officers tortured them, demanding that they confessed of murder of the entrepreneur from Orenburg and his underage son. Later on, at Pre-trial Detention Facility, Mushfig Shykhaliyev wrote a full confession. According to him, he wrote it after one of the members of administrative staff made a hint to him that he might be raped if he persisted.
However, on 17 March 2018, Shykhaliyev and Shakhmarov were released from custody due to the absence of the evidence of their guilt – the alibi, which they initially reported, was confirmed: at the time of the murder of the businessman and his son they were in Bashkiria, busy with purchasing some meat.
In the end of July 2019, the third person, involved in this case, former defendant Mushfig Guliyev, applied to the Committee Against Torture. He told human rights defenders that he was forced to bear false witness against Shykhaliyev and Shakhmarov with regard to the murder of the entrepreneur from Orenburg and his underage son.
Two months after the apprehension he was also released from custody – his alibi was confirmed by numerous witnesses. However, he was transferred from the Pre-Trial Detention Facility to the special agency for temporary detention of foreign citizens, because while he was in custody, the period when he was authorized for temporary stay on the territory of Russia, expired. Having become a hostage of the developed situation, he was forced to wait for nine more months to be forcefully deported from Russia.
He resolved upon turning to human rights defenders only after he had left the territory of Russia.
On 6 June 2018, human rights defenders applied to the Investigative Committee on behalf of Shakhmarov and Shykhaliev with a report on tortures applied against them. On 29 June, the criminal case with regard to the fact of abuse of office was opened, however, as early as on 2 July this ruling was quashed by the Prosecutor’s office.
Starting from 3 July 2018, the investigators of the Third Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF based in Nizhny Novgorod started checking the torture complaint. By the present time, the investigators issued three rulings refusing to initiate criminal proceedings.
In February 2020, human rights defenders ensured that the checking related to these torture complaints is resumed, but this time – at the special department of the Investigative Committee dedicated to law-enforcement officers’ crimes.
By the present time, the investigators issued nine rulings refusing to open a criminal case. The latest “dismissal” is dated 7 September 2020 has been quashed as illegal and the check with regard to tortures has been resumed once again.
In May 2020, human rights defenders applied to court on behalf of Mushfig Guliyev with a lawsuit on compensation of moral damage inflicted to him with illegal criminal prosecution.
Human rights defenders provided to court procedural documents, confirming that Guliyev for almost a year was groundlessly kept in detention facilities, as well as a conclusion of a psychologist who confirmed that Guliyev developed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Guliyev evaluated the damage inflicted to him with illegal criminal prosecution at three and a half million rubles.
Today, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture received a copy of ruling of the Leninsky District Court which, on 15 September 2020, decided to collect three hundred rubles from the Ministry of Finance of Russia for the benefit of Mushfig Guliyev as a compensation for inflicted moral damage.
“We shall definitely appeal against this court ruling in the part of the compensation awarded to Guliyev, because it is hard to call it fair. Guliyev lost a year of his life in detention facilities as a result of illegal prosecution. In addition, in the nearest future we shall apply with a lawsuit on compensation for moral damage inflicted to the third person involved in the criminal case on double murder – Mushfig Shykhaliyev”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Albina Mudarisova comments.
As we have previously reported, on 12 May 2020, the Orenburg Regional Court upheld the ruling of the district court on awarding one hundred thousand rubles to Ramin Shakhmarov as a compensation for moral damage related to ungrounded suspicion of murder of the entrepreneur from Orenburg and his underage son.