(Photo: Vladimir Karabash)
Investigator of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Kanavinsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Aleksandr Karamazin, having conducted a check based on the complaint of Vladimir Karabash about the police battery, has not found any elements of crime in the actions of the law enforcement officers and refused to initiate a criminal case. Lawyers of the Committee for Prevention of Torture, representing the interests of Karabash, point out high quality of the conducted check and state that the conclusions of the investigator coincide with the results of the public investigation performed by human right defenders.
As we have previously reported, retired disabled of III group Vladimir Karabash from Nizhny Novgorod applied to the interregional nongovernmental organization «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» for legal assistance, claiming that on 16 September 2015 he was beaten up by the police officers.
According to Vladimir Karabash, he was apprehended by two police officers and taken to the police department of the Kanavinsky district of Nizhny Novgorod, where law-enforcement officers suggested that he was taken to hospital for medical examination since he was in a state of alcoholic intoxication.
«In the yard of police department No.2 I told the police officers that I am not going anywhere because I don’t think that the medical examination is necessary and I admit my fault. In response to my objection the police sergeant hit me in the left eye. I fell, after that the police officers started to kick me and I lost consciousness for a short while. I came to my senses when the police officers raised me up from the ground and brought into UAZ police vehicle which took me to psychiatric clinic No.2. After medical examination I was brought to the same police department where I was hold liable for being in the state of alcoholic intoxication in a public place», – explained Vladimir Karabash.
According to the forensic medical examination report dated September 18, 2015 «V.S.Karabash has bruises in the hairy part of the head, on his face, upper and lower limbs, extravasations on the frontal region on the right, periocular area on the left, right knee-joint area, which are characteristics of blunt trauma, origin of bruises – blow, friction, extravasations – blow, compression, taking into account their morphological characteristics they could emerge over the period of 1-3 days».
On 21 September of this year human rights defenders submitted a crime report to the Investigative Department for the Kanavinsky District of Nizhny Novgorod of the Investigative Committee of RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region on behalf of Vladimir Karabash. On the same day investigator of the Kanavinsky Investigative Department Aleksandr Karamzin questioned the applicant, and later on seizure of outdoor and indoor video surveillance records was conducted. As it will turn out later it is precisely the timely obtained video recording that helped to establish the real picture of the incident: the video features Vladimir Karabash trying to run away from the police officers and then falling.
In addition to other verification activities the investigator examined the scene of the incident, questioned a number of witnesses, and added the documents collected by the human rights defenders in the course of the public investigation to the materials of the check, as well as initiated an agency check of the Kanavinsky police department officers.
Lawyer of INGO «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» Sergey Romanov commented on the work of the investigation: «Investigator Aleksandr Karamazin actually performed a thorough check, comprehensively and extensively studied all the circumstances of this incident and evaluated them objectively. Video records from the video surveillance cameras, which were timely seized by the investigator upon our motion, played the key role in this. In addition, Karamazin appointed the expert review of this video record, which showed that it was not edited. Unfortunately, it is not always that the Investigative Committee officers are eager to obtain and study the data from video cameras which subsequently results in losing these key evidence and leaves the main issues unresolved. I am sure that if every police battery complaint was investigated that effectively, there would not only be fewer complaints to the investigative authorities, but also the ungrounded accusations of the police officers».