Photo: Dmitry Korshunov from Nizhny Novgorod. The police poured ammonium chloride into his nostrils.

   The Nizhny Novgorod police poured ammonium chloride into the detainee’s nose.   

   The victims under the case of Alexander Anoshin who was choked in a medical detoxification centre have just obtained a judgment awarding compensation of moral damage incurred by their father’s and brother’s murder, and there is already one more application concerning tortures in detoxification centres.  This time the complaint concerns police officers from the Kanavinsky district sobering-up station.

According to the applicant, Nizhny Novgorod businessman Dmitry Korshunov, on 18 April 2009 he was at a funeral banquet after his brother’s burial. People who saw Dmitry on that day stated that Dmitry had not drunk much, could walk on his own without swaying. After the banquet Dmitry went to the bus stop and five minutes later he was detained by the patrol and point-duty service and taken to a medical detoxification centre. An hour later the police suggested that Dmitry should sign an administrative offense protocol. Dmitry started correcting mistakes in the protocol and got a blow from the police officer. Then Mr. Korshunov was floored, tied up and battered. Later the police poured ammonium chloride into Dmitry’s nostrils in order to recover him from a fainting fit thus burning the mucous membrane in his nose. Mr. Korshunov was later taken to a police station where his wife picked him up. Right after that Dmitry went to hospital. 

The Investigation Department of the Kanavinsky district Prosecutor’s Office refused to open criminal proceedings under Mr. Korshunov’s application. Having collected some superficial data, the investigator did not find corpus delicti in the actions of the police. The Committee against Torture has appealed against this refusal to the Kanavinsky district court of Nizhny Novgorod.