Head of the Third Investigative Office of the State Investigative Division of the Investigative Committee of the RF Denis Kolesnikov cancelled the resolution on refusal to initiate a criminal case based on the fact of abduction and tortures of Aleksandr Novoselov from Nizhny Novgorod in 2004. The material was sent for additional checking. According to lawyer from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Sergey Romanov this is already the thirteenth “refusing” resolution which is quashed as illegal. Due to this fact human rights defenders are going to apply to the Chairperson of the Investigative Committee of Russia asking to conduct the functional audit of all its subordinates.
Let us remind you that on 28 November 2013 European Court on Human Rights announced a verdict on the case of Aleksandr Novoselov who was abducted in 2004 by policemen, brought to the forest, and tortured in order to make him confess to an attempted murder of a notorious businessman from Nizhny Novgorod Oleg Sorokin. Later all the charges against Aleksandr were dropped, and what he had been subjected to was explained as some «operative drill» conducted by the police. However, the ECHR came to the conclusion that Mr Novoselov was tortured by representatives of state authorities, and the inquiry into his allegations of ill-treatment was «superficial and formalistic». The European Court held that Russia is to pay the applicant EUR 27,500.
Due to the ruling of the ECHR on 12 November 2014 Supreme Court of the Russian Federation cancelled the resolution on refusing to initiate a criminal case upon the claim of Aleksandr Novoselov and compelled the investigating authorities to resume the proceedings based on his complaint.
At first, the First major investigations department of the regional investigative office was in charge of checking the report of Aleksandr Novoselov. Then, the material was handed over to the Third investigative department (located in Nizhny Novgorod) of Chief Investigative Office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
After the decision of the European Court and the verdict of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation two years passed and investigators passed thirteen refusals to initiate criminal proceedings which were subsequently quashed as illegal.
The last “refusal” was quashed on 5 December this year, and the materials were sent for additional checking.
“The persons guilty of tortures of Aleksandr Novoselov will receive no punishment because of the period of limitation. We fear that inefficient work of investigators investigating the case of abduction will have the same unfortunate result – the limitation period for this Article expires in April 2019, – points out lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures Sergey Romanov representing the interests of Mr Novoselov. – Due to this fact we are intending to apply to the Chairperson of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin asking to conduct the agency check of his subordinates. We are also planning to apply to the court filing a claim on compensating the moral damage inflicted to Aleksandr by the inefficient checking of his report of abduction.”