Human rights defenders achieve investigators’ attention to complaint filed by Anapa resident about torture

An investigator refused to institute a criminal case on torture by law enforcers of Semyon Sukhinin, a resident of Anapa. The investigators even did not talk to the complainant and did not question him until lawyers of the “Team Against Torture” (TaT)* made an appointment with the chief of the investigation department.

On May 29, 19-year-old chef Semyon Sukhinin was detained in Anapa on suspicion of stealing money. He said that the police detained him near his house and requested him to go with them, and then they beat and threatened him to force him to confess to the crime. Later, doctors diagnosed Semyon Sukhinin with brain concussion. According to the law enforcers’ version, Semyon Sukhinin rendered resistance when they were detaining him, but according to CCTV footage, the man voluntarily got into a police service car, the “Team Against Torture” (TaT)* reported.

“From the moment when a complaint about a crime is filed, an investigator has a maximum of 30 days to conduct an inspection. In our case, during this time, the investigator did not take any actions aimed at questioning Semyon Sukhinin ... Furthermore, the investigator did not appoint a forensic medical examination,” reported Anastasia Vaschenko, a lawyer from the “Teams Against Torture” (TaT)*.

The human rights defenders note that Semyon Sukhinin was arrested for two days under the administrative article on failure to obey legal requests of a police officer.

The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that the Krasnodar Territorial Court cancelled the conviction of two former law enforcers in the case on beating of Yevgeny Manchenko, a person with disability.

When commenting on a dying statement of Yevgeny Ipatov, the human rights defenders have pointed out that in Kuban, the practice of torturing detainees became regular. Yevgeny Ipatov claimed that law enforcers tortured him to force him to defame himself and confess to stealing 60,000 roubles from a couple of pensioners.

*The “Team against Torture” (formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.