(Anatoly Lagayev, source of photo: umvd56-238.ru)
On 2 October 2015 the Perevolotsky District Court starts examination of the criminal case against senior district police officer of the Department of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Perevolotsky District Anatoly Lagayev. He is charged with committing the crime under «a, b, c» of Part 3 of Article 286 of the Russian Criminal Code (abuse of office with the use of violence and special equipment causing grave consequences). Lawyers of the Committee for Prevention of Torture will be representing the interests of victim Andrey Bishev.
As we have previously reported, on 4 September 2013 Andrey Bishev applied to Orenburg branch of INGO «The Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance. According to the applicant, on 21 August 2013 he was at home, and in the evening had a quarrel with his mother. She called the district police officer to calm her son down, for he had repeatedly started domestic brawls before.
The police arrived quickly. As Mr Bishev states, the district police officer police major Anatoliy Lagayev came with a colleague of his from a neighboring village. They took the brawler into their car and drove outside the village. After a short ride they arrived to a grain storage. There the policemen ordered Andrey to get out of the car, knocked him down and began beating him with a truncheon. Andrey remembers that the battery went with lecturing, such as «everyone is sick and tired of your behavior».
After the «awareness session» Bishev was thrown in a trunk of the car for him not to stain the car. Then the officers came back to the village to question Andrey’s neighbours concerning the quarrel with his mother. After that, according to Bishev, district police officer Lagayev took the man to Perevolotsk District Department of the Interior of Orenburg region, where he kicked Andrey again in the chest area, because Andrey refused to sign the documents needed for drawing up a report on administrative violation.
According to the victim, he was left alone for almost 24 hours in a cell of the police department temporary detention facility. Before he was put to the temporary detention facility Bishev was brought for medical examination but the doctors did not think there were any grounds for his hospitalization. Thus, Bishev was left without medical assistance till the evening of the next day. Only late in the evening of August 22 a duty officer who took over the watch, called an ambulance for Bishev. Andrey was urgently admitted into Perevolotsk district hospital.
The man was diagnosed with numerous hematomas, skin abrasions, and internal bleeding with rupture of internal organs. He underwent a complicated hours-long surgery. The situation was so difficult that local surgeons had to ask their colleagues from Orenburg for help. Only with their joint efforts the doctors managed to save Andrey. However, for a long time after that his condition remained grave.
(Photo: Andrey Bishev after the surgery)
As early as on 25 августа 2013 investigator the investigative authorities opened a criminal case. However, for almost a year various versions were investigated (battery of Andrey by the neighbor teenagers, battery of Andrey by his mother with a rolling pin, battery of Andrey by a neighbour’s bull), except the one which stated Bishev himself – a battery by the policemen.
Due to that human rights defenders representing the interests of Andrey Bishev, applied to the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Orenburg region Sergey Kolotov requesting to transfer this case to the first department for major cases investigation of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Orenburg region. Investigator of this department Vladimir Lebedev, having gathered evidence exposing district police inspector Lagayev, on 10 November 2014 charged him with crime under items «a, b, c» of part 3 of Article 286 of the Russian Criminal Code (abuse of office with the use of violence and special equipment inflicting grave consequences).
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Perevolotsky District approved the indictment in relation to district police officer Anatoly Lagayev, returning the case to the investigator in order to eliminate the violations. Finally, in September of this year the case was taken to court.
Lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova, representing the interests of Andrey Bishev in court: «The court proceedings will definitely be complicated, it was shown by how difficult was for this case, which is quite simple from the point of view of its story, to reach court. I’m also extremely surprised by the fact that defendant Anatoly Lagayev, charged in committing such a grave crime against the state authority and the interests of the state service has not been removed from his post and continues his work as the senior district police officer of Department of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Perevolotsky District».