Translated material
Defeated "Friendship"
The policemen who staged a “clean-up” of the Sochi boarding house were given real sentences
The Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi yesterday handed down a verdict in the scandalous case of local riot police , who in July 2006 staged a “clean-up” of one of the boarding houses, as a result of which almost 30 vacationers were beaten. Several dozen special forces soldiers took part in the event, which the police leadership initially called “prevention to counter terrorism,” but only eight were in the dock, especially “distinguished” in bullying and torturing people. All of them were found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of two and a half to five years.The story that made the Sochi riot police “famous” throughout the country took place on the night of July 19, 2006 in the Druzhba health complex, located on the Black Sea coast in the village of Nizhnee Makopse in the Lazarevsky district of Sochi. According to the case file, at about 11 o'clock in the evening, law enforcement officers arrived in four UAZ vehicles and a bus to the territory of the boarding house and ordered the guard to open the gate. The watchman became the first victim of the “fight against terrorism.” For his refusal, he was severely beaten, after which the riot police went into the boarding house and took on the vacationers.
Having burst into the local cafe "Oasis", riot policemen put everyone present, including children and women, on the floor and began beating the men. They beat me with batons, chairs, electric shockers, hands and feet. A little later, law enforcement officers released the women, and everyone else, including children, was dragged to a nearby beach. Along the way, the riot police walked through one of the buildings of the boarding house and, lifting them from their beds, “delivered” to the beach all the other men they came across. After this, vacationers on the beach were beaten again for a long time. They were then loaded onto a bus and taken to the local police station. Everyone was released only in the morning, and from each, under the threat of further beating, they took a receipt that no violence was used against them and they had no complaints against the police. Officially, the detention of vacationers and minors was formalized under the pretext that they allegedly resisted the legal demands of the police.
However, already in the morning of the same day a scandal broke out. It was initiated by the parents of “detained” teenagers, whom the police handed over to them with traces of brutal beatings. First of all, they went to the doctors for help (two teenagers, 15 and 17 years old, had to be hospitalized), and from there they went straight to the prosecutor's office. Since there were several dozen victims, an investigation began. At first, the Sochi police department insisted that nothing unusual had happened - they say that riot police carried out a preventive operation against terrorists and only those who did not have documents were detained. But after a few days, both the local police and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Krasnodar Territory were forced to admit that the riot police had “overdone it.” And a little later it became known that there was no “preventive operation” at the boarding house. It’s just that the day before, two riot policemen, while relaxing in a cafe, pestered women, which provoked a fight, and then decided to “take revenge.”
The trial of the participants in the “anti-terrorist raid” began in October last year. Eight riot police officers were in the dock; they were charged with abuse of power, beatings and threats to kill. 29 people were recognized as victims in the case. As a result, the court agreed with almost all of the prosecution's arguments.
Former assistant chief of staff of the Sochi riot police, captain Mikhail Pruidze, was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony. By the way, he was not present at the announcement of the verdict due to illness. Former senior inspector of the information and documentation group Alexey Korolev and driver-mechanic Vladimir Zabeyvorota received three years in prison, policeman-fighter Vladimir Zubenko, policeman-sniper Alexey Petrenko, junior inspector-sniper Alexey Yezersky - three and a half years each, policeman- fighter Igor Pimenov - four and a half years in prison. The maximum punishment is five years in prison and a fine of 30 thousand rubles. -- the court appointed the policeman-fighter Maxim Ozhgikhin. Of those convicted, however, none admitted guilt.
“The verdict is correct. Everything is in accordance with the law. I think that people working in law enforcement agencies will think ten times before committing illegal actions,” said the mother of a teenager beaten by riot police, Lyudmila Oadamyan. “I sincerely believe that the verdict will serve as a lesson for police officers,” said victims’ lawyer Nikolai Shakhovalov.