Tigran Grigoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. According to them, in December 2015, they were apprehended by the police officers of Criminal Investigations of the Anapa Police Department and, after they were taken to the local department, were subjected to the battery and electricity torture. Let us remind that in November of last year a criminal case was already opened based on the fact of abuse of office by unidentified officers of this police department regarding four citizens from Anapa.
Tigran Grigoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov informed human rights defenders that in the period from 12 to 13 December 2015 in the Department of Interior for Anapa the Criminal Investigations police officers demanded that they confessed of an assault related to robbery against an elderly couple. According to the applicants, the police officers were beating them and torturing them with electricity.
“Since I refused to confess I was taken to the room with an electric transformer or a welding unit. I was put on the bench with my face down, my hands and feet were tied up. After that they hooked up wires to my wrists and ankles with the help of metal pins and started to energize them, from time to time increasing and decreasing voltage”, – Tigran Grigoryan describes.
Artem Beglaryan remembers that on 12 December 2015, a car stopped near him, five men jumped out of the car and started to beat him up. After he tried to run away from them, they shot him rubber-bullet handgun and hit his back.
“They seized me, put a bag on my head and took me to the forest. There they started to beat me up, demanding that I told them where was the money taken during the robbery. At the police department where I was taken next, I refused to sign a confession, after that they tortured me with electricity, having put a gas mask on me”, – that’s how Artem Beglaryan described what was going on.
Grigory Achkasov also reported battery and electricity torture.
In the end, all the apprehended signed full confessions.
At the Temporary Containment Cell of the Department of Interior of Russia the following bodily injuries were registered on Mr Beglaryan: “Swelling of two knee joints and both wrists, bruises on the left and on the side of the back. Right brow swelling, bruises on upper lip”.
According to the log of medical examinations of persons kept in the Temporary Containment Cell, the following injuries were registered on Artem Achkasov: “Bruises on the left arm, bruise in the area of the back”.
On 15 December 2015, Artem Beglaryan submitted a complaint against the actions of the police officers to the Anapa Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office, from there his complaint was redirected to the City Investigative Department.
After two months, on 11 February 2016, a procedural check was initiated based on Beglaryan’s complaint, the result of which was that on 21 February of the same year a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings was issued.
Later on, investigator of the Anapa Investigative Department Ivan Sinyapko, having examined the complaints of Grigory Achkasov and Tigran Grogoryan, also refused to initiate criminal proceedings.
In July 2016, Tigran Grogoryan, Artem Beglaryan and Grigory Achkasov were declared guilty of robbery and convicted to different terms of imprisonment.
In January 2018, all the three men decided to apply for legal assistance to the Krasnodar branch of the Committee Against Torture, because they learned from the media that a criminal case was initiated against unidentified police officers of the Anapa Police Department concerning abuse of office using violence.
“For less than a year seven people have applied to our organization with complaints of torture at the Anapa Police Department. People who are not familiar with each other, name the same police officers who used tortures against them, describe similar circumstances under which they were subjected to these tortures, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Romanov comments. – Due to new applications, we started our own public investigation. We also intend to insist on efficient checking of the torture complaints and on initiating criminal proceedings”.
As we have previously reported , on 23 November of the last year, in the Krasnodar Territory, a criminal case was opened based on abuse of office with the use of violence by the Anapa police officers. Four citizens from Anapa accuse the police officers that they tortured them at the local police department in December 2015. One of the men told that the police officers raped him with a stick. The criminal case was initiated after eleven refusals were issued.