28 March 2007, 22:18
Committee against Tortures: Chechnya differs from other regions in the character of violence
"After all the years of out studies of torture cases, we now have got an idea why they exist in Russia. However, we have no answer to the question how often tortures are applied to people," with these words Igor Kalyapin, chairman of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional public organization "Committee against Tortures," started his press conference in Moscow. According to the expert, it is practically impossible to define the frequency of violence application by various ministerial structures, since the Criminal Code lacks any fixed definition of this sort of crime.
A broad application of tortures is caused, first of all, by poor professionalism of inquiry and investigation workers, pressure from the bosses to reach faster rates of crime disclosure and impunity for usage of prohibited inquest methods, tortures inclusive.
In Mr. Kalyapin's words, the practice of using tortures in Chechnya differs greatly from the rest of Russia. Igor Kalyapin has added that although the causes, methods and objects of tortures in Chechnya differ from other regions of Russia, the trend is the same: increased violence level on the part of law enforcement bodies against the population.
Author: Alexandra Kondrasheva, CK correspondent
