(In the middle – Farukh Urozov, photo made by Makhmudchon Rakhmatov)
Today the Investigative Committee website published information on completion of the investigation of the criminal case against three officers of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia for the Solnechnogorsky District who are charged with crimes under part 4 Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Russia («inflicting grave bodily harm leading to the death by negligence») and items «а, b, c» of part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Russia («abuse of office»). This criminal case was based on the fact of death of Farrukh Urozov from Tajikistan, which happened on 18 September 2014 in the near-Moscow town of Solnechnogorsk police department.
As we have previously reported, on 26 September a Moscow-area resident Ilkhom Alikhonov applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal support. He told the human rights defenders that in the evening of 17 September when he returned home, his brother Farrukh Urozov was asleep. In ten minutes time several Patrol-and-Guard Service officers entered the house together with the brothers’ neighbor.
According to Ilkhom, having applied physical violence, the police officers woke up his brother, handcuffed him and took him to the police department. As Ilkhom learned later, Farrukh was detained upon suspicion of using violence against six-year-old daughter of their neighbor.
Ilkhom explained that after a while police officers came up to his house again and this time they took him together with his mate Firdavs Sattatov to the same police department. There Alikhonov heard the loud cries of his brother, who was in one of the rooms. For some time he even managed to see Farrukh through a cracked door: the brother was sitting on the floor with hands tied, a lot of bruises and scratches were clearly seen on his face, there was blood on the floor.
Early in the morning of 18 September Ilkhom and Firdavs were released from the police department. Several hours later they learned that Farrukh Urozov died in the police department. According to the forensic medical examination Urozov’s body and limbs were hit over 75 times. In the course of the battery 13 ribs were broken. Farrukh died of multiple traumas and strangulation.
Criminal case with regard to the fact of Urozov’s death was immediately initiated; one of the police officers was detained and arrested. In the course of investigation the involvement of two other Criminal Investigations Department officers in Urozov’s death was established: later on they were also arrested and taken into custody. All the accused were fired from the law-enforcement bodies, and a number of officers, including the superiors of this police department, were subjected to disciplinary action.
Lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Sergey Babinets, representing the interests of Ilkhom Alikhonov, a brother of the deceased, who was declared the affected party in this case: «The investigation of the case of Urozov’s death lasted over a year. The accused police officers never confessed, telling that they did not beat him up. At the same time they failed to explain how he got so many injuries in one night while staying in the police department. I’d like to point out that the following materials were extracted from the criminal case: the materials of the check of the Patrol-and-Guard Service officers who detained Urozov, materials with regard to the mother of the girl, who, according to her own words, hit Urozov several times, as well as materials with regard to the former head of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Solnechnogorsky Police Department. Initiating criminal cases based on these materials was refused».
«Within the scope of our work with regard to Alikhonov’s complaint we conducted our own public investigation, based on the results of which we came to conclusion that Urozov’s right to life and freedom from torture (Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights) were violated. Since the investigator let us take part in the criminal case in the capacity of the representatives of the affected party, we filed motions and took part in the investigative activities, including face-to-face confrontations and identifications. After the indictment confirmation we are going to represent the interests of the affected party in court. Our objective is to see the just sentence to those who are guilty of Urozov’s death, and from then on – to gain a compensation for moral damage inflicted to Farrukh’s relatives by his death», – Babinets added.