Investigator of the Military Investigative Department for the Krasnodar garrison Aleksandr Kuleshov dismissed the request of Maksim Timoshenko from Gelendzhik to initiate the criminal case. Maksim claims he was tortured by the FSB officers who forced him to confess of organizing the illegal migration and to provide evidence against his superior. In the opinion of the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture, representing the interests of Mr Timoshenko, his complaint requires additional check, that is why human rights defenders will appeal against this refusal.
As we have previously reported, on 14 August 2019, Maksim Timoshenko from Gelendzhik town of the Krasnodar Territory applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. Maksim works in a local company as a specialist for registration of migration registration of foreign citizens.
Maksim said that on 8 August he was invited to the department for internal migration issues of the Gelendzhik police, where a little later some FSB officers showed up. who handcuffed him and brought him to the FSB department for the Krasnodar Territory with dislocation in Gelendzhik. There, according to Timoshenko, they beat him up, demanding that he confessed of organization of illegal migration, as well as provided evidence against the General Director of the company he was working at.
“After I reported that in 2018 I already provided explanation to the police officers in the framework of the check, one of the FSB officers started to yell obscenities and shouted: “You don’t understand where you are, we are not police!” At the same time, the second officer put a plastic bag on my head and started to choke me; there was virtually no oxygen in the bag, and at that they were hitting my head against the table. At first someone hit me once, and then, since there was no response from me, another hit came. In total, they hit me about five times at the back of my head and in the ear area. Then I heard a sound typical for electric shockers from behind my back. They hit my shoulder with it, I fell on the floor due to harsh pain. In total, there were about ten hits of electric shocker in the area of my shoulder and my back. When I was lying on the floor, the FSB officer told me, “Get up, you f…er, stop lying around!” After that I felt a kick in the left part of my rib chest”, – Maskim described.
According to Timoshenko, after that he agreed to demands of the FSB officers, who removed the handcuffs and dictated the information that he was supposed to memorize and convey to the investigator during the interrogation.
“The FSB officer delivered me to the police department and handed me over to the investigator, having warmed me against any “funny business”. The investigator interrogated me in the capacity of a suspect, I signed the protocol and received its copy. Then a defense lawyer came in, who, having familiarized with the protocol, told me that this crime involves paying a fine, and also signed the protocol. I demanded the copy of a ruling on initiating criminal proceedings, but the investigator refused, telling me: “You’ll get it when you have a passport on you”, – Maksim described.
After Mr Timoshenko left the police department, first he came by his office and then went to the first aid station to have the bodily injuries registered. Based on the results of the medical examination, a medical note with a diagnosis was issued to him: “Contusion of the rib chest on the left lumbar region”.
According to the report of medical forensic examination conducted on 14 August, Maksim Timoshenko was inflicted the following bodily injuries: “bruises of the left lumbar region, anteroexternal surface of the right forearm in the lower third part, extravasation of the internal surface of the left shoulder in the upper third part”.
On 12 August, Maksim Timoshenko submitted an application to the Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Krasnodar garrison, which is conducting the check at the present time.
Today human rights defenders received a copy of ruling from the Investigative Committee dated 28 August, dismissing initiating criminal proceedings with regard to Timoshenko’s complaint.
In his refusal, investigator-criminalist of the Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Krasnodar garrison Aleksandr Kuleshov pointed out: “With regard to explanations of M.A.Timoshenko on applying physical violence against him at the building of Department 4 (Gelendzhik) of the Department of FSB of Russia for the Krasnodar Territory, including with the use of electrical shocker, should be taken with a grain of salt, since they are disproved by the totality of the available evidence”.
“We have not yet familiarized ourselves with the materials of the check and so far it is too early to discuss its quality, however, even now we observe several significant drawbacks in the work conducted by investigator Kuleshov. For example, he did not question the witnesses who saw Maksim Timoshenko before he was apprehended by the FSB officers, as well as after the questioning. The investigator also failed to explain how the bodily injuries appeared on our applicant, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Romanov comments. – That is why after familiarization with the materials of the check we will insist on quashing this refusal and conducting additional check”.