Yevgeny Skidanov released from SIZO after jury verdict
The jury acquitted Kuban resident Yevgeny Skidanov, who claimed being tortured after his detention in 2019 in a murder case. Yevgeny Skidanov was released after spending five and a half years in prison.
Yevgeny Skidanov, a resident of the Cossack village of Vyselki in Kuban, sought to have a criminal case instituted against policemen who tortured him at a local police station. By November 2024, the investigation had fifteen times refused to institute a criminal case on the Yevgeny Skidanov’s torture. In 2023, the court found his detention and persecution in an administrative case unlawful.
In November 2019, Yevgeny Skidanov was detained in a case on the disappearance in January 2014 of Natalia Grozina, a general farm worker in the Vyselkovsky District. Yevgeny Skidanov complained that he was hung on a crowbar, tortured with electric current, suffocated with a plastic bag, and hit in his face. The man complained about torture the next day after his detention, and a forensic medical examination confirmed his injuries. Since 2019, Yevgeny Skidanov has been kept at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) on the charge of murder. The defendant has denied his involvement in the crime all the time.
In the Korenovsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory, the jury acquitted Yevgeny Skidanov in the murder case by a majority vote. The jury found that the defendant’s guilt had not been proven, after which the defendant was released from the courtroom.
“The man was free for the first time in 5.5 years. In the courtroom, he was met by his parents and children, whom he had not seen for many years,” the “Team Against Torture”* reported on its Telegram channel on June 9.
The human rights defenders note that the Vyselkovsky District Court, where the Yevgeny Skidanov’s case was initially considered, could not assemble a jury for several years, which is why the case was transferred to the Korenovsky District Court. The body of Natalia Grozina, whose murder Yevgeny Skidanov was accused of, have not been found by the investigators over the years.
Jurors in Russia are more favourable to defendants than professional judges. They issue acquittals much more often. According to the human rights defenders’ information, in cases with a “popular element,” jurors “are being guided by their convictions, not by the rules of the system.” At the same time, from 50 to 75% of acquittals issued on the basis of jury verdicts by district courts are annually cancelled after an appeal, notes the “Team Against Torture”*.
This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 10 2025 at 02:45 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
*The “Team against Torture” (TaT, 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.