The European Court of Human Rights awarded 26 thousand euro to Murad Ragimov and his father Firuddin Ragimov each, who were beaten up by the Moscow Special Rapid Response Detachment (SOBR). The cout established that the Russian authorities violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, prohibiting tortures.
In addition to acknowledgement of torture, the ECHR established that Russia performed non-effective investigation based on the victims’ applications. The court also established that Murad was illegally deprived of freedom, because after the battery he was take to the police department and it was not registered as apprehension.
The SOBR officers stormed the Ragimov’s apartment in August 2016. Murad, who was at that time a 22-year old student of dentist department of the Russian National Research Medical University named after Pirogov, was beaten up for about half an hour. The officers demanded that he confessed of involvement in the extremist activity: he was handcuffed, beaten up with arms and legs, was choked with a plastic bag, and when he passed out, they restored his consciousness with electrical shockers. His sister Gyunay, who was in the apartment, recalled that law-enforcement officers broke the kitchen table, tore off one of its legs and beat up Murad with it, broke a cutglass sweets box against his head. The Ragimov’s relatives said that a SOBR officer forced a knife in Murad’s foot, when he refused to sign a protocol.
59-year old Murad’s father was also beaten up: law-enforcement officers were beating up Firruddin with hands and electric shockers, and then they left him lying on a bed, having fully covered him with a blanket.
Medics registered Murad and Firrudin Ragimov with numerous bruises and hematomas. The Committee Against Torture organized a comprehensive medical chemical examination. Specialists of the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “Medical Forensic Examinations and Surveys Center” confirmed the fact of the electrical current application.
Later on, Murad was sentenced to 3.5 years of penal colony for illegal storage of drugs – the relatives who were with him in the apartment, claimed that it was the law-enforcement officers who planted the substances. Murad served his time already.
The investigation issued 23 dismissals of claims to open a criminal case against the SOBR officers. In the opinion of the Investigative Committee, the force was applied against Ragimovs legally, because Murad and Firuddin, allegedly, offered resistance and applied combat techniques against the law-enforcement officers. In addition, according to the investigators, Murad hurt his foot when he stepped on fragments of the broken window in the corridor, despite the fact that the photos from the incident scene shows that it was intact. At the same time, investigative authorities do not explain the injuries inflicted with the electrical shocker.
Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture appealed against the dismissal of claim to open a criminal case at the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow.