Lawyers of the Committee Against Torture filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR) on behalf of Vladimir Prytkov from Orenburg. The human rights defenders are convinced that the Russian Federation violated the rights defined by Articles 3 («Prohibition on torture») and 13 («Right to an effective remedy») of the European Convention. It has been the seventh complaint in 2014 which has been filed by the Orenburg human rights defenders with the ECHR on behalf of their applicants.
(Vladimir Prytkov)
As we have previously reported, on 19 July 2010 Vladimir Prytkov from Orenburg applied to the regional branch of the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance – the man claimed that he was severely beaten up by the policemen from 2nd Operational Investigation Unit of the Orenburg Regional Directorate of the Interior.
As Vladimir told the human right defenders, on May 19, 2010 he was detained at work and delivered to the 2nd Operational Investigation Unit of the Orenburg Regional Directorate of the Interior. There, according to Prytkov, he was beaten and tortured for about four hours with the purpose of making him confess that he together with his brother was involved in car theft, or to pay a bribe so that he would be only a witness in this case, unlike his brother. Having failed to obtain a confession from Vladimir, the police had to release him.
After such «conversation» with the representatives of the authorities Vladimir went straight to the city hospital No.1, and after his condition grew worse he was urgently hospitalized in the city clinical hospital named after N.I.Pirogov. The following diagnosis was established: «combined craniocerebral injury, brain contusion of medium severity, subarachnoid hemorrhage, contusions of soft tissues of the head, chest contusion, arterial hypertension of 1 and 2 degree. Asthenoneurotic syndrome». After he was released from the Pirogov hospital as an in-patient Vladimir was undergoing out-patient treatment in its outpatient clinic for three months.
On 28 June 2010 Prytkov submitted a crime report upon the fact of police abuse to investigative authorities, however for over a year the investigators failed to open a criminal case. Only on 16 November 2011 it was opened on the grounds of evidence of a crime under Article 286 (3) (a) of the Criminal Code of Russia (exceeding official powers with the use of violence).
Despite numerous motions for conducting investigating actions and complaints against inaction of the investigative authorities, submitted by the human rights defenders on behalf of Prytkov, the case was repeatedly dismissed on the grounds that no crime had been committed. The last investigator’s order on dismissal of a criminal case dated 31 May 2013 was declared unlawful and unjustified by the court on 12 September 2014. The court also pointed out that the investigative authorities remained idle during four months and conducted no investigative activities in this criminal case despite the orders from the prosecutor’s office of Promyshlenny region of Orenburg.
«At this point in time the head of the investigative department for Orenburg Regional Investigative Administration of the Russian Investigative Committee Dmitry Gulin, despite the order of the Promyshlenny regional court of Orenburg dated 12 September 2014, which compelled him to correct the committed violations, continues to remain idle and ignores the motion filed on behalf of Vladimir Prytkov, – lawyer of the Orenburg branch of INGO «The Committee Against Torture» Albina Mudarisova explains the situation. – As a result of apparent unwillingness of the investigative authorities to investigate the criminal case of Prytkov tortures we were forced to apply to the European Court of the Human Rights. Only this year we have submitted seven complaints to Strasbourg in the interests of our applicants».