For a month the investigators of the Investigative Committee have done nothing to investigate the claims of Oleg Kozlovskiy, officer of Amnesty International human rights organization, that he was abducted and tortured in Ingushetia. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture, representing the interests of Kozlovskiy, will be insisting on bringing the guilty of red tape to responsibility.
 
On 17 October 2018, Oleg Kozlovskiy, officer of Amnesty International human rights organization, applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. According to him, in the framework of the research project, on 5 October 2018 he arrived to Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, where protest actions were taking place at the time.

According to Kozlovskiy, on 6 October an unknown man knocked on the door of Artis Plaza hotel room and asked him to go outside, allegedly, to meet one of the organizers of the protest actions. According to Oleg, this man brought him to the car, parked not far from the entrance to the hotel, suggested him to wait for the organizer inside, and left.

“As soon as I sat inside, two men in masks and caps jumped in the car, seized my phone and valuables, hit me in the face, forced me to lower myself and look down, so that I did not see where we were going”, – Kozlovskiy said.

According to Oleg, they were driving about 20-30 minutes and stopped in the field: “I was told to get out of the car and lie face down. They told me they would shoot me at attempt to flee”.

According to Kozlovskiy, the abductors held a pistol to his head and forced him to undress: humiliated him, beat him up, and threatened with murder. They made a video record of it all with a mobile phone and then, having received from him a promise not to tell this to anyone, returned for their things in the Artis Plaza hotel and then gave him a ride and dropped him near the airport in Beslan in the Northern Osetia.

On 9 October, Oleg applied to hospital for medical assistance. Doctors registered a rib fracture. On the same day, he applied to the Investigative Committee via the Internet-reception with a complaint where he described what happened to him in detail. However, no one from this organization contacted him. On 30 October, three weeks after his application, Oleg Kozlovskiy received just a letter stating that his application was transferred for consideration of the superior of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Department of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Ingushetia.

“According to the law, the crime report should be checked within three days from the moment when it was received; at the same time the Investigative Committee officers should take all measures for providing prompt collection and registration of all possible evidence in order to prevent their loss or destruction. However, a month passed already and the investigators did not do anything at all, even the applicant was not questioned”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Dmitry Piskunov, representing the interests of Oleg Kozlovskiy, comments.

Answer from Artis Plaza hotel to the defense lawyer’s request, stating that it is impossible to provide video records dated 6 October, because they are stored for seven days only, shows that there will be less evidence in this case with every day of inaction.

On 22 October, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture repeatedly submitted the report on crime against Kozlovskiy, handing it over to the officers of the Chief Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus Federal District. The fate of this document is unknown, either.

At the present time, human rights defenders appeal against inaction of the investigative authorities. They also intend to insist on agency check and bringing to disciplinary responsibility the persons who committed red tape during examination of the report on crime against Oleg Kozlovskiy.