Chairman of the Committee Against Torture, member of the Presidential Council of Human Rights Igor Kalyapin applied to the superiors of the Ministry of the Interior, the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutor’s Office requesting to sort out the outrageous situation that developed at the Department of the Interior of Russia for Anapa. This application was caused by opening of a criminal case with regard to the actions sexual nature committed by the officers of this police department to an underage girl. The human rights defender also reminded to the superiors of the federal institutions that during several years the Committee Against Torture has been dealing with complaints against tortures applied at this police department, however, the guilty persons have not yet been hold criminally liable. In the opinion of Mr Kalyapin, apart from the superiors of the district Department of the Interior, the officers of the local investigative department and Prosecutor’s Office also are accountable for the situation, that is why he requests to check their activity.

As we have previously reported, on 26 August 2019, criminal proceedings were initiated with regard to two Patrol-Guard Service officers of the Department of the Interior of Russia for Anapa. They are suspected in forcing the actions of sexual nature to a minor (part 2 of Article 133 of the Criminal Code of Russia). According to the version of the investigative authorities, the police officers forced an underage girl to sexual intercourse in exchange for not bringing her to administrative liability.

On 3 September, Chairman of the Committee Against Torture, member of the Presidential Council of Human Rights Igor Kalyapin applied to the superiors of the Ministry of the Interior, the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutor’s Office requesting to sort out the outrageous situation that developed at the Department of the Interior of Russia for Anapa.

In his applications Igor Kalyapin reported nine torture complaints regarding this particular police department. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture are dealing with investigation of these complaints. Not a single police officer was punished on either of these complaints.

For example, for almost four years four residents of Anapa Artem Ponomarchuk, Aram Arustamyan, Karen Engoyan and Eric Engoyan are trying to pursue justice – they are accusing the Criminal Investigation department officers of tortures at the local police department in December 2015, while they were forcing confessions. The criminal case was initiated only on 23 November 2017 after eleven refusals were issued. For the period of investigation not a single suspect appeared in the case, and the investigators’ work was repeatedly declared inefficient by the Prosecutor’s Office, as well as by the superior authorities of the Investigative Committee. The criminal case was illegally suspended several times – last time it was resumed on 2 September of this year.

As for two complaints on tortures at this police department, the criminal case was not initiated at all. This refers to complaints of Artem Beglaryan and Grigoriy Achkasov. They claim that in the period from 12 to 13 December 2015, at the Department of the Ministry of Interior of Russia for Anapa, Criminal Investigations officers demanded that they confessed of an assault against an elderly couple. According to the applicants, the police officers beat them up and tortured them with electricity. During the pre-investigative check, the investigators issued eleven illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings.

The persons guilty of the death of Ivan Geliyev in a police UAZ in 2017. For two years of investigation not a single suspect appeared in the case, and the investigators, repeatedly issued illegal rulings, were not brought to responsibility. At the present time the investigation of the criminal case was suspended.
 
Grigoriy Shpeka’s complaint was dismissed, too – he also complained about the Anapa Police Department officers, who were forcing him to confess in November 2015: hit him, put a gas mask on him, tortured him with electricity.

In his application to the Prosecutor’s Office of Russia Yury Chaika, Igor Kalyapin asked to check all the reports on brutal treatment at the Anapa Police Department for the past five years, the legality of the rulings of the Investigative Committee investigators on these complaints, as well as the response of local public prosecution officers to the checks conducted by the investigators.

Addressing Minister of the Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the human rights defender asked to perform an unscheduled agency check of the Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia for Anapa with applying specific harsh measures based on its results.

Igor Kalyapin asked head of the Investigative Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin to conduct the check of the local investigative department, as well as evaluate the legality of the rulings on torture complaints issued by the investigators.

“What else should happen at this police department for the order to be restored there, can it really be true that it can be achieved only by attracting the attention of the federal center, – asks head of the Krasnodar branch of the Committee Against Torture Sergey Romanov. – Raping a minor – let us call the things by their proper names – a vivid and horrid example of what impunity leads to: it generates more and more disgusting crimes. When the police officers will be able torture without any punishment, the Investigative Committee officers – ignore the torture complaints, and the prosecution officers reluctantly response to all this for the sake of appearance only – even more horrible crimes will await us all”.