Rights defenders complain to ECtHR about torture of KChR resident

In the city of Gelendzhik, law enforcers beat up and tortured Denis Karimov, a resident of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR), trying to knock confessions out of him, says the complaint sent by the Committee against Torture (CaT) to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Denis Karimov, 32, was detained in the spring of 2017; they demanded from him to confess to committing a robbery.

According to rights defenders, Karimov was thrown face down on the floor, and an electric wire was connected to his foot. "Unable to withstand this torture, I agreed to sign everything thy demanded from me," the CaT quotes Denis Karimov as saying.

In August 2018, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Back in 2017, Karimov's advocates complained to the ICRF about his torture, describing the traumas inflicted to him. Investigators were changed several times, but none of them could efficiently check the torture complaint, human rights defenders assert.

Klara, the mother of Denis Karimov, said that law enforcers had forced him to confess, threatening to falsify cases against his relatives. While detaining Karimov, they claimed that he would soon be released, she has added.