Medical certificates justify Mr. Lyapins claims about savage tortures; however the court holds a bizarre position under this case.

 The Interregional Committee against Torture has finished checking the application of Mr. Sergey Lyapin from Nizhny Novgorod who claims that he was tortured by electricity by the Volodarskiy district police (Nizhny Novgorod region) who tried to obtain a confession they needed from Sergey.

Specialists of the Committee against Torture have grounds to suppose that the police really violated Mr. Lyapin’s rights and legal interests by subjecting him to tortures and violent treatment.

At present the Investigation Department of the Committee against Torture for Nizhny Novgorod region started a public investigation of these events. They questioned a number of witnesses, conducted medical examinations confirming that Mr. Lyapins injuries could result from exposure to electricity. 

Lawyers of the Committee against Torture appealed against the refusal to start criminal proceedings against the Volodarsk police officers who had allegedly tortured Mr. Lyapin to the Dzerzhinsk court.

However, the court dismissed the Committee’s claim saying that admission of the fact of tortures by the police might affect the evidence collected by the police against Mr. Lyapin. This means that the court does not care whether Mr. Lyapin was tortured or not, for the court it is important that Mr. Lyapin is found guilty of the alleged crimes as soon as possible. And since the confession obtained by tortures can not be used to prove the guilt, it is better to dismiss the torture issue.

Of course, the Committee against Torture lodged a cassation appeal against this iniquitous, unlawful and unjustified position of the Dzerzhinsk court.  The cassation trial date will be set soon.

At the same the Volodarskiy district court stopped criminal proceedings against Mr. Lyapin due to reconciliation of the parties.