The Interregional Committee against Torture has received applications from two Dzerzhinsk citizens – Ms. Sh. And Ms. G. – claiming that their sons, Dmitry and Ivan, were tortured by the police. According to the women, the police wanted to make the young men confess to a crime.
The men were detained already in December 2009 when the Nizhny Novgorod police once again decided to “show vigilance” and “improve the disclosure statistics” of the crimes based on racial hatred. The police needed “Russian fascists”, i.e. Russian young men that could be made to confess to crimes against people of other nationalities. Ivan and Dmitry from Dzerzhinsk were quite fit for that role.
According to Ivan, on 24 February 2010 the police picked him up in remand prison SIZO-1 and took him to the Kanavinsky district of Nizhny Novgorod without a lawyer where he was tortured with a gasmask in one of the buildings. Ivan could not stand the sophisticated tortures and wrote a confession. It should be mentioned that the Committee against Torture has notified the Investigation Administration of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Nizhny Novgorod region about this crime. The Investigation Committee has refused to open criminal proceedings.
According to Dmitry’s application addressed to Mr. Stravinskas, head of the Investigation Administration of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Nizhny Novgorod region, on 23, 26 and 29 March 2010 Dmitry was also picked up in SIZO-1 by the police and taken to Operative Investigation Department -6 located in the Kanavinsky district where he was many times tortured. The police also menaced that they would rape him and make a video recording of the process.
As a result of this “police work” Dmitry confessed to participating in the murder of certain Mr. Kim in 2008.
INGO “Committee against Torture” is planning to notify the Kanavinsky district Investigation Department about this crime. In the nearest future it will also appeal against the refusal to start a criminal case under Ivan’s application claiming tortures.