Today, on April 23, 2008, the Blagoveschensk district court of Bashkiria continued hearing the so called Blagoveschensk case where the accused are several police officers from the local Department of Internal Affairs – Mr. Shapeyev, Mr. Gilvanov and Mr. Khamatdinov.

In course of trial the indictees and their lawyers submitted numerous motions to render some of the evidence inadmissible and exclude from the case file. The court passed some of the motions, and, in particular, some protocols of criminals’ identification were found inadmissible, the decision on other motions is postponed till the next hearing which is scheduled for April 30, 2008. You may remember that this case is one of four cases initiated under the so called “big Blagoveschensk case” instigated upon the fact of the mopping up conducted by the Blagoveschensk police and SPF officers in Blagoveschensk in December 2004. More than 300 people are rendered victims under this case.

Earlier, on April 8, 2008, the Blagoveschensk district court of Bashkiria convicted one the police officers – Mr. Yuriy Golovin who had battered Mr. Pavel Peskov. The Multiregional Committee against Torture where Mr. Peskov had applied for help investigated this case. Lawyers of the Committee provided legal assistance to him. Then the district court adjudicated that Mr. Golovin had committed a crime under p. “a”, “b”, cl. 3 of art. 286 of the RF Criminal Code (abuse of official powers with violent treatment and special tools application) and sentenced the indictee to 3 years of suspended sentence on a 1-year probation and prohibition to serve in law enforcement and municipal bodies for 1 year.