They are trying to make lieutenant general Alyoshin deal with the routine failures of his subordinates and punish the culprits.

   In the fist place, the investigation authorities are displeased with inefficient service checks conducted by the Ministry of the Interior under several notorious cases of torture and violent treatment allegedly committed by police officers.

In particular, the case of Dmitry Aparin from Birsk whose spine was broken at the local sobering-up station is in question.  

The Birsk district Department of Internal Affairs and the Bashkirian Ministry of the Interior conducted service checks under this case and concluded that Dmity Aparin had injured himself through falling.

At the same time the Bashkirian representation of the Committee Against Torture where Dmitry Aparin’s relatives had applied for help conducted a public investigation and came to a conclusion that the detoxification centre staff had violated article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment). This result was confirmed during the pre-trial check conducted by the special investigation department of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Bashkiria. For this reason a senior investigator of the special investigation department of the Investigation Committee under the RF prosecutor’s Office for Bashkiria has prepared a petition addressed to lieutenant general Alyoshin, Bashkirian Minister of the Interior. The petition reads that officers of the Birsk district Department of Internal Affairs and the Bashkirian Ministry of the Interior conducted incomplete, superficial service checks without determining important facts and with obvious predilection to the initial version suggesting that Aparin had obtained injuries through his own inadvertency.

These facts, according to the petition, have lead to accusation of the Birsk detoxification centre officer as late as more than two months after the crime.

It is suggested that the Bashkirian Ministry of the Interior should consider the petition of the Investigation Administration with the participation of the staff and hold those in charge of violations disciplinary liable.

The Committee Against Torture hopes that this petition will lead to indepth analysis of the effectiveness of service checks conducted by the Bashkirian Ministry of the Interior on the allegations of police abuse. The lack of objective service checks inhibits prompt determination of structural problems in the work of the police, identification of police officers inclined to breach the law and disciplinary order, therefore, no measures are taken to prevent crimes by the police.