In Grozny - beat

How we returned to Chechnya in search of a lost investigation. Reporting Elena Milashina

More than a month has passed since the attack on me and lawyer Marina Dubrovin in Grozny. In accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation, we, as the victims, did everything so that this crime was recorded and investigated. We immediately turned to the doctors, the police, to the Investigative Committee of Russia and to the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation.

My colleagues, in turn, turned to the press secretary of President Putin with a request to comment on the situation, why in Chechnya they regularly attack human rights activists, journalists and now on lawyers who are forced to work for state protection “in the safest region of the country” (as Marina Dubrovina did). “This is not quite a question of the Kremlin. This is a matter of law enforcement agencies, ”answered Dmitry Peskov.

Unfortunately, Mr. Peskov did not explain which law enforcement agencies he had in mind. And since a huge number of law enforcement officers have divorced in our country, Marina and I had to go to Grozny ourselves to find the same body that would take responsibility for the investigation of this crime.

Together with us, Oleg Petrovich Orlov, the head of the Hot Pots program “Hot Pots” of the Hot Pots program “Hot Pots” of the Memorial Human Rights Center. In Chechnya, we were met by an employee of the committee against torture Kostya Gusev.

Each of us had his own combat experience gained during work in Chechnya. Such a fun company ...

We started the search operation from the police department No. 1 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Grozny. It was here that on February 7, our statements about the attack officially registered. We had several questions: who specifically (which inquiry officer) conducts an audit, which procedural decision has been made (all legal terms for making a decision have already been issued) and why we were not informed about how the investigation of the attack was going on for a month. I and Marina were quickly allowed through the checkpoint of the police department No. 1 (I must say that it is not easy for ordinary citizens to get into the territory of the Chechen police department - in the “peaceful region of Russia” the police, the Investigative Committee, the prosecutor's office and the courts continue to exist in wartime regime and are well -fortified fortresses). In the office, the girls found out the fate of our statements for a long time (the KUSP number issued during the registration did not break through the base). And they were very surprised that Marina and I became victims of the attack almost in the center of Grozny.

“Are you sure you were attacked in Grozny?” - the girl asked in a hijab, in a fashionable dress to the floor, but with police stripes.

- And then! I answered.

- How did you manage? - the second girl with a bow on her head in an even more fashionable shape, clearly sewn in the studio was sincerely surprised.

“But this citizen does not like us,” I poked a finger at the portraits of Akhmat and Ramzan Kadyrovovs hanging on the wall.

The girls did not ask questions anymore.

Finally, a half -hour search in the police base issued the following information.

Our statements about the attack were registered on the night of February 7. On the same day, the opera Ayub Dokuev folded them with a pile and sent them to the Lenin Investigative Department of the Investigative Department of the Czech Republic. Leninsky, received our statements on Monday, February 10, and on February 12, opened them back to the opera Dokuev. From Gaidabaeva Street, 31 (OP No. 1) to Garazhnaya Street, 9b (from the Leninsky district) - about 11 minutes by car, or a little more than a kilometer. This grand distance of our statements overcame 8 days (“You were still lucky, since usually the mail goes along Grozny from one to two months,” one of the girls in the police stationery told us). On February 19, our statements finally got to the police department and ... on the same day, they left the prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district. So, at least, the police girl told us: “On February 19, the district police officer Shamil seized your applications for the transfer to the Prosecutor's Office of the Leninsky District without an accompanying letter.”

- And where is our verification material lying now? - smiled the lawyer Dubrovin.

“Try to look for the prosecutor’s office,” the girls sent us.

The prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district is located in a neighboring police department No. 1 of the building. That is, no more than one minute with a measured step. We were passed inside and ordered to climb the second floor to the office. In the office, we said that, on the advice of the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, we are trying to find a law enforcement authority, which dares to start an investigation on the fact of an attack committed on us in Grozny. But to begin with, we need to find statements themselves, the traces of which are lost in the prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district.

“We have a foster day today,” the girl in the office delighted us. - Want to the prosecutor?

The prosecutor of the Leninsky district, Dmitry Anatolyevich See,, the young man of a dumbbelon, incredulously reacted to our statements that from February 7 to March 11, no one had noticed about the progress of the audit on our statements.

- I will immediately order my audit, and if it is as you say, the perpetrators will bear responsibility.

- What does it mean “if it is”? - asked Marina Dubrovina. - You are not enough for our words?

-As far as I know, your statements by the decision of the prosecutor of the Republic of Chechnya Sharpuddy Muaydovich Abdul-Kadyrov were withdrawn from the police department and transferred to investigate the investigative committee. So to speak, in connection with a public resonance, ”Pukhulya explained.

- And the Investigative Committee immediately returned these statements back to the police. And from the police they were immediately destroyed by the Lenin prosecutor’s office, which you are led by. This was on February 19, and since then neither the Investigative Committee nor the police have access to these materials and can carry out an investigation. That is, it turns out that the prosecutor's office of Chechnya prevents the investigation? Did I understand correctly? - I asked Geely.

“You ask me some journalistic questions,” answered Dmitry Anatolyevich and, it seems, was offended. - Your statements were taken to study in the prosecutor’s office, and after the study, a decision was made to send the material for the audit to the Investigative Committee.

- Repeated?

- Yes!

- Dmitry Anatolyevich, there is nothing in the verification material but our statements and our certificates from the emergency room. How much time does the Chechen prosecutor need to study these pieces of paper? 20 days have passed since February 19. Is it bad in the prosecutor’s office with the Russian language?

- You have journalistic questions again! - Sykhul was indignant.

“I have questions of a person who is in the widespread with logic,” my patience finally burst. -Either illiterate employees, or the Chechen prosecutor’s office, is working in the Chechen Prosecutor's Office, is engaged in the so-called ping-pong, throwing our statements from the police to the Investigative Committee and then back so that neither the police nor the Investigative Committee can investigate this crime. For what? It is also clear. A month later, the investigator’s request for this case about images from video cameras, which recorded the attack and attackers, will come to the answer: due to the fact that a lot of time passed since the attack, the records have not been preserved, rewritten or destroyed in some other way. When investigating a crime, it is time that is of key importance. The actions of the Chechen prosecutor's office led to the fact that a crime that could be investigated in one day - it is enough to remove and watch videos from the surveillance cameras, under which we were beaten - remains unsolved. Evidence and evidence are most likely lost. Criminals are free. Moreover. Not only the criminal case on the fact of the attack on us has not yet been instituted, there is not even a decision, the police or the UK and which investigator is investigating it. Do you think this is normal?

“Write a complaint in my name, we will give you all the answers in writing,” Seechulya answered us.

The next day, March 12, we really received a response to our complaint. This answer states that our statements were transferred from the police to the prosecutor’s office for a month, from the prosecutor’s office to the Investigative Committee, from the Investigative Committee to the police, from the police to the prosecutor’s office, from the prosecutor’s office on March 10 (on a strange coincidence on the eve of our arrival in Chechnya) - again to the Investigative Committee. And this, it turns out, was notified each time. Have you received a single notification? All questions are to the “Russian Post”.

“Thus, arguments about violations of your rights have not been confirmed.”

PS

On March 12, when we had already left Chechnya, I was called the investigator of the Investigative Department of the SCR Ayub Taramov and said that he was instructed to investigate the attack on us. The investigator invited me and lawyer Marina Dubrovin to give detailed testimony. I replied that we would soon return to the republic. In the meantime, let him not sit back and at least ask for videos from 27 surveillance cameras installed in the Continent Hotel, in which we were attacked.

- It is unlikely that you, of course, will be able to get these notes, but still try. Do at least something, after all! - I asked the investigator.

- Why are you so sure that there are no more entries? - asked Taramov. - For example, I am sure that we will get everything.

- And let's argue on a bottle of champagne! I suggested.

On that and decided.