Lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures applied to the Investigation Committee with a crime report: human right defenders question the honesty and professionalism of forensic expert Valery Filatov who conducted expert examination on the case of the attack on the policeman.
(Photo: Andrey Dvortsov)
Let us remind you, that on 26 September 2016 Manshuk Dvortosova from Druzhny settlement of the Nizhny Novgorod region applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures for legal help with a report on using force against her husband Andrey by the policemen on 9 August this year.
As Mr Dvortsov clarified later on this day around 8 p.m. he was outside in the street with two friends. The man had drunk some alcohol before that. According to Andrey, when they were approached by three policemen who started to ask something, he ran away.
– One of the policemen caught me and performed a reap. I fell on the ground and was handcuffed from behind. After that they were beating me for a minute or so. At some point I fell unconscious, – Dvortsov remembers.
Andrey explained that he was working as a plumber. That day he was coming back from work wearing a uniform where he had a knife in one of the sleeves which is necessary for his work. As Andrey assumes, the reason for a sudden rage of the policemen was that when one of them was catching him by the sleeve and handcuffing him, he cut his hand.
Andrey spent the night at the police department. The next day he was given a statement with two fines for 500 rubles each for appearing drunk in a public place and disobedience of the legal order of the policeman.
On the same day he registered the received injuries in the local first-aid station: brain concussion, bruises on the face, left earflap, shoulders, anterior abdominal wall, left forearm, left scapular region, left cnemis, lumbar region, left knee-joint area, right hip, scratch marks on the right knee-joint area and parietal region.
On the next day Andrey’s condition got worse and he had to spend eight days in city hospital No. 39 of Nizhny Novgorod. After that he spent over three weeks having ambulant therapy.
During his treatment Andrey learnt about initiating a criminal case against him for attacking a policeman.
During the investigation Andrey found that a case had been opened against him based on the attack on the policeman.
Dvortsov himself also applied to the Investigation Committee with a report claiming the policemen. And to this date investigators refused to initiate a criminal case four times, all these four “refusals” were acknowledged illegal and were cancelled. Currently another pre-investigation check is being held.
Within the framework of the investigation of the criminal case against Dvortosov a forensic medical examination was scheduled. It was performed by expert from Public Health Facility Non-Commercial Organization “Nizhny Novgorod Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Investigation” Valery Filatov.
– Doubts concerning the competence and honesty of Mr Filatov arouse immediately after we studied this expert examination conclusions. In his conclusion he did not only state that the policeman had a slash wound of “the fifth web space”, a non-existent anatomical area, but he also stated the severity level of the injury without studying the relevant documents. The results of the later examinations also cast some doubt on the objectivity and honesty of expert Filatov, – says lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures Evgeny Chilikov, representing the interests of Andrey Drovrtsov.
In order to dispel the doubts human rights defenders applied to Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “Forensic Examinations and Research Center” asking for the review of Filatov’s conclusion.
Specialist from this Center Ruslan Kalinin confirmed that there were gross violations in the reviewed conclusions including using documents unsuitable for conducting examinations, determining the severity of injuries without sufficient grounds, indicating the wound area which does not exist anatomically.
“The described conclusions of expert Filatov, definitely play one of the key roles in the investigation of the incident between Kstov policemen and Andrey Dvortsov. There are no doubts that his conclusions may result in serious consequences for Dvortsov. We assume that numerous and quite severe violations in the examinations conducted by Mr Filatov demand the review from the point of view of their legal nature and so we applied to the Investigation Committee”, – Mr Chilikov emphasizes.