The investigation of the criminal case on the battery and electricity torture of Sergey Lyapin at the police department of the Volodarsky District in 2008 is finished in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Investigator of the Investigative Department for Dzerzhinsk of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region Anastasia Gryaznova brought charges of abuse of office against the two involved persons. After the victim and the defendants familiarize themselves with the case materials, the case will be sent to the Prosecutor’s Office for confirmation of the indictment.
(Sergey Lyapin, author of the photo: Mikhail Solunin)
We remind that this criminal case was opened in March, 2016 by investigator of the Investigative Department for Dzerzhinsk of the Investigative Committee for the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region Roman Shamshutdinov based on the fact of Sergey Lyapin’s tortures. Human rights defenders on behalf of Mr. Lyapin are convinced that initiating the case became possible due to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights which acknowledged the fact of Sergey’s tortures in 2014 and established that the investigative authorities did not conduct adequate investigation at the national level, so on 20 January of this year the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made a ruling to resume the proceedings of Lyapin’s case.
In September of last year two participants of the events that took place eight years ago, Vitaly Starikov and Oleg Kashtanov, were declared suspects in the criminal case, at the same time Kashtanov is an acting police officer, and Starikov has already retired from law-enforcement bodies. During face-to-face confrontation Lyapin identified them as his torturers.
Despite that, investigator Igor Razumkov, who was investigating this case, twice issued rulings on suspending the preliminary investigation, referring to item 1 part 1 Article 208 of the Criminal and Procedural Code of the Russian Federation – failure to identify the person subject to involvement in the capacity of a defendant. Both these rulings were declared illegal, and the case was returned for additional investigation. Later on, the case was suspended and resumed twice.
At last, on 6 October of this year investigator of the Investigative Department for Dzerzhinsk of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region Anastasia Gryaznova brought charges against Vitaly Starikov and Oleg Kashtanov regarding the crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence”). At the present time, the persons involved in the case continue familiarizing with its materials.
“After more than nine years the investigation, at last, established the culprits in the case of Sergey Lyapin’s tortures. This has come as unpleasant surprise for the two defendants, who after all these years even needed some time to recall who that Lyapin was, when they were requested at the investigative activities, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Albert Kuznetsov comments. – Despite the fact that in half a year the period of limitation for bringing to criminal responsibility with relation to this criminal case expires, we hope that the court will be able to examine the case and the culprits will be punished”.