On September 26, the human rights organization “Team Against Torture” released a report “The Arithmetic of Torture: North Caucasus Federal District.” According to human rights activists, over the 19 years of their work in the North Caucasus, they have never managed to bring security forces to justice under a criminal article for abuse of power. At the same time, they were able to obtain compensation for harm through the European Court for several victims of police violence.
The report analyzed 23 attempts to obtain an investigation into the illegal actions of security forces. As a rule, the response to a complaint is an immediate refusal to initiate criminal proceedings. After several “refusal” decisions, lawyers still managed to insist on the initiation of criminal cases on 15 facts of torture. In some cases, they had to appeal investigators’ refusals 20 times. For example, based on a complaint about the torture of Timur Zhambekov from Kabardino-Balkaria, 21 decisions were made to refuse to initiate a criminal case, 20 of which were canceled as illegal. The CPT lawyers failed to achieve an effective and objective investigation at the national level, and on June 8, 2021, they appealed to the ECHR.
But even if a case is opened, this does not at all guarantee its effective investigation, the authors of the report note. Most often, the investigator “cannot” identify the suspects, does not carry out any investigative actions, and suspends the investigation.
Thus, in a criminal case based on a complaint about the torture of a resident of Ingushetia, Albert Khamkhoev, the suspect became an employee of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, Andrei Ovada, who at the time of the crime was a senior detective and then headed the department of the Center for Combating Extremism. The investigation was repeatedly suspended with the wording “the location of the suspect is known, but there is no real possibility of his participation in the criminal case” - in reality, Owada was on vacation. In total, investigators issued 17 decisions to suspend this investigation, 9 of which were declared illegal. A year later, criminal prosecution against Owada was dropped “due to the lack of corpus delicti in his actions.”
Over the years of work of the checkpoint in the North Caucasus, they only twice managed to bring a torture case to trial. Both cases are currently under investigation. The victims are Musa Aliyev and Yulduz Kurashova from Dagestan. Musa Aliyev was beaten by police officers because he refused to admit guilty of committing a crime. The forensic expert recorded a concussion and soft tissue bruises in the fronto-parietal region. Yulduz Kurashova was beaten by police officers, forcing her to sign documents collected on her as a result of the allegedly carried out operational search activities. The woman has a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, bruises on the body and left lower limb.
CPT experts also note that police do not just beat people: in 56% of cases recorded in complaints, they use electric shock.
The Anti-Torture Team has been working in the North Caucasus since 2003. Its representative offices are also in Moscow, Krasnodar Territory, Orenburg and Nizhny Novgorod regions. According to the head of the North Caucasus branch, Ekaterina Vanslova, the “torture” statistics in different regions of the country are largely similar, which indicates the systemic nature of the problems in the security bloc.
Half a month after the publication of the report, CPT lawyers announced their first victory in the North Caucasus: the Khasavyurt City Court of the Republic of Dagestan sentenced two police officers - Shamil Aliyev and Ramazan Saipulaev. They were found guilty of torturing Yulduz Kurashova and falsifying evidence and received 3.5 years in prison. The court also found that detective Maya Akhmedova was involved in the falsification. She received a suspended sentence. The victim was awarded compensation for illegal criminal prosecution in the amount of 50 thousand rubles.
“We are satisfied with the verdict, even though, as an additional punishment, we asked the court to deprive Aliyev and Saipulaev of the special ranks of “police captain” and “police lieutenant,” which was not done,” CPT lawyer Magomed Alamov commented on the court’s decision.