Yesterday the Supreme Court of Chuvashia upheld the decision of the Moskovsky District Court of Cheboksary City which on 25 April 2007 had sentenced Aleksandr Shalagin, a deputy chief of the Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chuvashia, to three years’ imprisonment for cruel treatment of his subordinate.

    As stated in the court’s decision, on 12 May 2006 lieutenant colonel Aleksandr Shalagin in his office beat Leonid Sarri, a police officer. Top officials of the UBOP required their subordinate to give false evidence against one of the officers of the Department for Internal Security of the Central Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Privolzhsky Federal District.

    Leonid Sarri’s lawyer applied for help to the NN Committee Against Torture. Lawyers of the Committee examined the application, provided the victim with comprehensive legal aid and managed to make the investigation transferred form the prosecutor’s office of Chuvashia, the objectiveness of which raised certain doubts, to the prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Tatarstan which brought the criminal case against Mr. Shalagin into court.

    The sentence passed in April was challenged by the defence, however the Supreme Court of the Republic upheld the sentence on appeal. Now the lieutenant colonel, who used to live free life where he could ignore laws and beat his subordinates, will have to get accustomed to living in the environment of a Russian prison.