Photo: Azerbaijan citizen Emil Dadashov battered by the Nizhny Novgorod police.

    The Investigation Committee has on its own initiative cancelled the refusal to start criminal proceedings on the allegations that Azerbaijani citizen Emil Dadashov was battered by policemen from the Nizhegorodskiy District Directorate of the Interior issued earlier by investigator Voevodina.  

Before that the Committee against Torture appealed against the unlawful decision. At the first hearing the Prosecutor’s office representative submitted the ruling canceling the refusal to start criminal proceedings and ordering an additional check. It was issued by Ms. Malikova, head of the Investigation Department for Nizhegorodskiy district. The Investigation authorities have basically agreed with the opinion of human rights defenders that the refusal to instigate criminal proceedings was unlawful. Ms. Malikova determined that the investigator had conducted the check incompletely and had not evaluated certain significant facts correctly and obliged another investigator to conduct an additional check and to make a decision on starting criminal proceedings under cl. “a”, p.3 of art.286 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code.  

However, there are still doubts about professionalism of the Investigation Committee workers.

Mr. Dadashov was battered in April 2008. Till November Ms. Malikova was not interested in whether the refusal to start criminal proceedings had been lawful. The investigator’s decision was cancelled only after materials on the case of Mr. Dadashov appeared in Russian and foreign mass media and the Committee against Torture filed a claim to court. Investigator Voevodin’s legal illiteracy is also surprising and makes us criticize the recruitment policy of the Investigation Committee. Besides, the question arises – can it be so that unlawful rulings of investigator Voevodina are manifestations of her conscious endeavour to cover up the crimes committed by police officers on the basis of racial and religious hatred?

In any case, lawyers of the Committee against Torture think that the Prosecutor’s office and the Investigation Committee should conduct a check in order to determine the real motivation of investigator Voevodina and her head Ms. Malikova who is to cancel unlawful and ill-founded decisions of the investigator promptly.  

The Interregional Committee against Torture hopes that in the nearest future a criminal case on the allegations of Mr. Dadashov’s battery by the Nizhny Novgorod police will be opened and the perpetrators will be punished.