Pensioner Viktor Semyonov applied to the Interregional Committee against Torture in November 2008 claiming that he had been battered in the Usilovsky district police department in Nizhny Novgorod.
According to the old man, disabled of 2nd degree, he was battered in March last year when he tried to complain about hooligans who were kicking up a rumpus on the staircase of his block of flats.
In May 2008 Mr. Semyonov wrote a complaint about unlawful actions of the officer from the Usilovsky district police department addressed to the head of the Nizhegorodskiy district Directorate of the Interior. District investigator Vasiliy Sanov was ordered to check the application.
It took investigator Sanov almost a year, till March 2009, to check the pensioner’s complaint, during that period he issued several refusals to open criminal proceedings.
Russian legislation requires that checks into allegations of crimes committed by Ministry of the Interior staff are conducted by investigators of the Investigation Committee under the Prosecutor’s office. For some reason Semyonov’s application was not sent to the Investigation Committee. Only in February 2009 the District Prosecutor’s Office pointed out to the Heads of the District Directorate of the Interior that the application was to be submitted to the investigation authorities.
Besides, the District Prosecutor’s Office demanded that the head of the Nizhegorodskiy District Directorate of the Interior should punish those guilty of inaction and breach of the criminal procedure code when considering pensioner Semyonov’s application.
In spring this year the Internal Security Service of the regional Directorate of the Interior paid attention to the allegations of the pensioner’s battery. However, having conducted a check, investigators did not disclose any violation in the actions of the Usilovskiy police station officers.
And investigator Sanov was held disciplinary liable for violating the procedure.