Pyatigorsk imam beaten in temporary detention center

On April 26, IslamNews.ru, citing the Ark project, reported the existence of photographs showing the beating of Imam A. Stepanenko in the temporary detention facility.

On April 1, he was transferred from the pre-trial detention center (SIZO 26-2 in Pyatigorsk) to the temporary detention center (IVS of the Internal Affairs Directorate of Pyatigorsk), about which his lawyers were not informed. On April 3, Stepanenko was interrogated despite the absence of lawyers. On April 7, after meeting with a lawyer, the imam was beaten by six TDF officers in the office. The beaters demanded that he confess to distributing extremist materials and calling for terrorism. The beating was stopped only after A. Stepanenko began to choke and stopped moving independently.

The arrested person was not allowed to file a complaint and contact a lawyer by the employees of the TDF. On April 11, the medical unit of SIZO 26-2 in Pyatigorsk, where A. Stepanenko was transferred, recorded the presence of beatings on his body. The prosecutor of Pyatigorsk reacted to the incident only after the intervention of the regional prosecutor's office. The official medical examination was carried out on April 21, i.e. 2 weeks after the beating.

On July 13, the Kovcheg project distributed a press release stating that employees of the Pyatigorsk prosecutor's office do not allow A. Stepanenko's lawyer Svetlana Avdzhayeva to fully familiarize herself with the case materials.

"On Saturday, July 1, 2006, the defense received the opportunity provided by law to familiarize themselves with the case materials in full," the text of the press release reads. lawyer Svetlana Avdzhayeva, so that they acknowledge in writing that they have finished familiarizing themselves with the case materials in full.

After the indictment, the materials of the case of Anton Stepanenko are: three volumes of investigative documents (253, 255 and 88 sheets), 3 video cassettes with filmed interrogations. Also attached to the case are evidence of the prosecution - 69 books and brochures, 83 audio cassettes, 31 computer floppy disks, 66 video cassettes, 47 CDs with materials, 3 computer "hard drives" with materials and 10 office folders with seized documents.

On July 7, 2006, on the fifth working day of familiarization with the case materials, having seen that Anton Stepanenko and lawyer Svetlana Avdzhayeva continued to study the case materials and did not sign the protocol on completion of familiarization, investigator D.N. Deriglazov. tried to illegally seize some documents from the file, tried to provoke Stepanenko and Avdzhayeva into a scandal, snatched the case materials out of their hands.

After the incident, lawyer Svetlana Avdzhayeva decided to invite a second lawyer to familiarize herself with the case file, who could act as a witness in the event of repeated provocative actions by employees of the investigating authorities.

Convinced that further illegal actions could be turned against him, investigator Deriglazov D.N. appealed to the Pyatigorsk City Court with the aim of limiting the period of familiarization of Anton Stepanenko and his representatives with the case materials.

The hearing was held on 11 July 2006, despite the fact that lawyer Svetlana Avdzhaeva had advised that she was to leave on that day to attend the Moscow Regional Court. As a result of the meeting Judge Zhurba H.The. ordered Stepanenko and his representatives to complete their acquaintance with the case on July 13, 2006. Thus, the decision of Judge N.V. Zhurba limited the total time for familiarization with the case file to nine working days.

According to lawyer Svetlana Avdzhayeva, only the time of a single playback of all audio and video materials from cassettes and computer media attached to the case as evidence of guilt overlaps the time released by Judge N.V. Zhurba. a period of time several times.

According to available information, the son of judge Zhurba N.V. serves as an investigator in the prosecutor's office of Pyatigorsk, together with investigator D.N. Deriglazov."

"During the period of familiarization with the case, on June 26, the maximum term of detention of the person under investigation, allotted by law, will end," said S. Avdzhayeva, commenting on the situation for the Ark Project. "Only the Regional Court can extend it, but with such a weak charge , this is unlikely to allow.Therefore, the investigator needs to transfer the case to the court at any cost, where the terms of detention can be extended

in a different order. The fact that this does not give us the opportunity to study the materials of the case does not interest him. The same technique was used in the Khodorkosky case.

On July 13, 2006, Anton Stepanenko's lawyer, Svetlana Avdzhayeva, stated that employees of the Pyatigorsk prosecutor's office had actually deprived her of the opportunity to get acquainted with the case materials // Project "Ark". 2006. July 13.

Sources

• Russian imam beaten in Pyatigorsk detention center // IslamNews.Ru. 2006. April 26. (Referring to Project Ark.)