Investigative Department for the North-West Administrative District of Moscow opened a criminal case on abuse of office with the use of violence (item “a”, part 3, Article 286 of the Criminal Code) based on the fact of the battery of a teenager by police officers in the Stroginsky Park.
In the evening of 21 October, 17-year old Artem Bulokhov was having a walk with a friend of his in the Stroginsky Park, when a police vehicle stopped nearby. Four police officers, two of which were in civil clothes, demanded in rude language that they stopped, after that Bulokhov got scared and ran. The police officers stopped Bulokhov, and officer Artem Tkachuk brought the teenager down on the ground, sat on his chest and hit him no less than 7 times with a fist in his face, without any explanations.
“For some short period of time I lost consciousness. I came to my senses when I felt that other men were kicking me in the area of ribs and my head. After that they pull my hands behind my back and cuffed them”, — Bulokhov is describing what was happening next.
Only after that one of the police officers showed his ID and said that an anti-drug raid was ongoing and Bulokhov was allegedly involved in illegal drug trafficking. The police officers performed the search of Artem Bulokhov and his friend without attesting witnesses and without drawing up a protocol, and did not find any narcotic substances. Later on, according to Bulokhov, he was threatened to be planted with 3 grams of mephedrone and demanded money from him. However, after police officer Tkachuk found out that he studied in the same school as Bulokhov, him and his friend were released.
Bulokhov returned home and in the morning of the next day, at his mother’s initiative, applied to the first aid station, after that he was hospitalized. The teenager was diagnosed with a closed fracture of nose bones, brain concussion, numerous bruises of the soft tissues of the face, contusions in the area of the neck, contusion of the soft tissues of the rib cage, right hand and underarm.
During her son’s stay at hospital, his mother Anastasia Bulokhova submitted an application to the Department of the Interior for the North-West Administrative District of Moscow and applied to the Committee Against Torture.
On 28 October, a criminal case against Aleksey Tkachuk and two unidentified police officers was initiated. Artem Bulokhov was declared a victim in the criminal case and interrogated in this capacity, and lawyers with the Committee Against Torture were allowed to be involved as his representatives.
“At the present time, Aleksey Tkachuk is a suspect, his measure of restraint is being decided upon, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Petr Khromov comments. – The Investigative Committee officers are actively performing investigative activities. Hopefully, other suspects will be established in the nearest future”.