Since regional investigation bodies and the Investigation Committee have filed to solve the problem of ineffective investigation under just one more torture case.

Alexey Tormozov, a young guy from Nizhny Novgorod, applied to the Committee against Torture claiming that he had been subject to police abuse in the notorious Leninskiy district Directorate of the Interior of Nizhny Novgorod. This Directorate of the Interior became known almost all over Russia in the context of Alexey Mikheyev’s tragedy who could not stand savage tortures, had jumped out of the window of the Leninskiy DoI and got disabled. Unfortunately, facts show that tortures have become the distinctive feature of this police department.

Alexey Tormozov told the Committee that in summer last year he had been taken to the Leninskiy district Directorate of the Interior and placed in a cell for administrative detainees. Alexey was underage and he asked for a permission to call his mother.   

The boy’s request provoked an inappropriate response – the police officer hit him of the face and then started to choke the teenager. Some other police officer dragged Alexey out into the corridor where tortures continued. The boy was put on the floor and battered.

Tormozov’s friend who was present during detention but was not taken to the police station called Alexey’s mother. The woman came to the Directorate of the Interior and demanded to call in an ambulance when she saw her battered son, but the police ignored her request.

In course of public investigation the Committee against Torture collected all necessary statements and data proving that Alexey had been injured exactly in the office of the Lenisnskiy district Directorate of the Interior during his detention by the police.

Right now the Committee against Torture is trying to make the investigation authorities start a criminal case on the allegations of Tormozov’s battery. The Nizhny Novgorod investigation authorities issued several refusals to initiate criminal proceedings that were later cancelled because the checks were incomplete. The Committee had to apply to the RF Investigation Committee due to inaction of regional investigation bodies. The position of the Investigation Committee that dismissed the appeal of human rights defenders made the CAT apply to the Basmanny district court of Moscow.