НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+
The Urenskiy District Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region partially satisfied the claims of Ivan Belov and Pavel Yakushev against the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The victims were awarded 300,000 and 100,000 rubles, respectively. They do not agree with that amount of compensation and plan to challenge the court’s ruling, as Ivan Belov had demanded 900,000 rubles from the Ministry, and Pavel Yakushev had demanded 600,000 rubles.
In April 2017, the police arrested Mr. Belov and Mr. Yakushev when they were helping their friend remove a large spare part from the territory of a sawmill in the city of Vetluga. As the men indicated later, they had not known that they were participating in the theft.
«A man in civilian clothes caught up with me, knocked me down and immediately began beating me. Then he lifted me by my hair to my knees and made me walk like that to the police car. The officers put me in the trunk and took me to the police station,» Ivan Belov recalls.
The policemen also arrested Pavel Yakushev. He was equally taken to the police station, where the officers requested that he tell about all the participants in the theft and confess to that crime.
Mr. Yakushev recalls the following: «One of the policemen took a wooden panel from a desk drawer and shouted: ‘Your night has just begun!’ He started hitting me on the head with that panel. Then he took a plastic heater and, untwisting it by the wire, hit me on my back with it.»
The men were released from the police station after having given the relevant written explanations. Ivan and Pavel went to the hospital, where they were diagnosed with numerous injuries. Mr. Belov had bruises, abrasions and a detached retina in his right eye. Mr. Yakushev had injuries on the back of his head, hands, legs and arms.
In 2018, the victims’ complaint about torture resulted in a criminal case: charges were brought against the head of the criminal investigation unit of the Vetluga police department, Anton Merlugov. In 2020, Mr. Merlugov was sentenced to 5,5 years of suspended imprisonment.
It is noteworthy that the investigation, and subsequently the court, did not establish the involvement of Mr. Yakushev and Mr. Belov in the theft, which they had been forced to confess to.