Translated material
Beaten and convicted
The scandalous case of torture at the Sokolniki police station ended with a verdict for the victim
Brutally beaten by “unidentified persons” at the Sokolniki police station, Moscow student Vsevolod Ostapov was convicted of using violence against an “identified” employee of the same police station. Yesterday, the Preobrazhensky District Court of the capital sentenced him and sentenced him to one year of suspended imprisonment, finding him guilty of hitting a policeman in the groin and spraying him in the face with a gas canister. And all his stories about the night of torture and abuse that he and his several friends endured about two years ago, the court called “the chosen method of defense”, which should be treated “critically.”In addition, one of the proofs of the student’s guilt was a certificate from the Center for Combating Extremism (Center “E”) of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate stating that Mr. Ostapov belongs to the anarchist movement. During the judicial investigation, several dozen witnesses were questioned - both employees of the Sokolniki police department and children who suffered at the hands of “unknowns,” as well as their friends, parents, and human rights activists. But the problem of the latter, as follows from the verdict, is that they were not eyewitnesses to the moment of Seva Ostapov’s detention and did not see with their own eyes whether he sprayed or did not spray from a spray can at a police officer.
“Seva was beaten and he was convicted. We have the following criterion: if you are a policeman, then you can be trusted, others are not worthy of trust,” the young man’s stepfather, Mikhail Pashuk, commented on the verdict. The leader of the public movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev suggested that this verdict could provoke new protests, and specifically warned “hot heads” against rash actions.
However, spontaneous rallies in support of Vsevolod Ostapov and his friends - Kirill Karyazin, Ivan Pavlov, Semyon Ovcharenko, Oleg Kolesnikov, Boris Roshchupkin and Oleg Dobrazhensky - have already taken place in Moscow, immediately after they were all tortured on April 4, 2008 were beaten on the territory of the Sokolniki police station.
As the guys themselves wrote in their statements to the UPC and Seva later told them in court, it all started in the evening, on an alley, next to the exit from the Sokolniki metro station, where young people gathered to talk and take a walk. Seva bought a bottle of beer in the tent, but did not even have time to uncork it when two police guards, Tarasov and Fetisov, approached him. They reported that a young man was detained for drinking this very beer. Seva began to argue with the police and asked them to introduce themselves. Then he was grabbed and dragged into the police station by force. The guys stood up for their comrade, began shouting, demanding to let him go. But the guards called for reinforcements. The policemen who arrived at the scene began to grab the young people, and as a result, several guys ended up at the Sokolniki police station, the rest fled.
And then they were beaten all night - with hands, feet, batons, electric shockers, on the head, on the back, in the stomach, in the groin. Even the volume of Schopenhauer found in the possession of Kirill Karyazin became an instrument of torture. By morning, everyone was taken for a medical examination, so that later they could present everything as a fight between drunken teenagers. But even after suffering, the young people insisted on an examination, which ultimately did not find any traces of alcohol in their bodies. After the “visit to the doctor,” the guys were returned to the department, where they signed some papers in a semi-conscious state.
The victims did not forgive their tormentors and, with the help of human rights activist Lev Ponomarev and lawyer Evgeniy Chernousov, filed a complaint against the Sokolniki police department officers at the Preobrazhensky District Investigative Committee department. But the result of the investigation was unexpected for them. The fact of beating, that is, in fact, the commission of a serious criminal offense, was established. But the culprits were not found, because the police officers interviewed denied everything. But the investigators did not trust the testimony of the victims (who were not even recognized as victims), because they were allegedly communists and anarchists. The case was dropped.
But the investigators opened another case - against Vsevolod Ostapov, accusing him of using violence against a representative of the authorities (Article 318 of the Criminal Code). “Ostapov in a public place, at the entrance to the Sokolniki metro station, with the intent to cause harm to health, not dangerous to life and health, attacked a policeman of the PPSM of the Sokolniki Department of Internal Affairs, senior sergeant Tarasov, accompanying his actions with obscene language, splashed him in the face with a gas canister and kicked him in the groin,” this was the accusation sounded at the trial, which began in early December last year.
The police witnesses unanimously asserted that they did not beat anyone, did not put pressure on anyone, did not use any special means, and that the bruises and bruises were because the guys fought among themselves. True, they themselves did not see the fight, although they came to it when called. But they saw their colleague Tarasov, who covered his face with his hands and rubbed his eyes. They drew up reports on the detainees and then sent everyone home.
Vsevolod Ostapov claimed that he did not spray the policeman in the face with a spray can, did not hit him, and could not even have done this, because he was held tightly by both hands and could not escape. Seva and his friends once again spoke in vivid colors about the nightmares they had to endure.
But the court had no doubt that the police were telling the truth, not the accused. The defense witnesses, as the verdict stated, were “conscientiously mistaken” because they saw everything, starting from the moment the detainees were taken to the police station. Parents cannot be eyewitnesses at all, and human rights activist Ponomarev told only about the circumstances of the “young anarchist people” who approached him. The fact that they are anarchists and generally socially dangerous citizens followed from the certificate of the “E” center. The bodily injuries found on Ostapov, the court decided, “do not affect his guilt in assaulting a police officer.” In addition, the defense’s arguments telling about the details of that terrible April night, in the court’s opinion, only confirm Ostapov’s location near the Sokolniki metro station. The court did not find any violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure during the investigation, and “the statement about the use of violence against Ostapov was not confirmed.” “The court regards Ostapov’s arguments as his chosen method of defense and treats them critically,” said judge Irina Vyrysheva. However, the punishment she chose was not the most cruel - one year of suspended imprisonment. “The verdict is unfair. This is just a mockery of the victims! We will definitely seek its abolition!” - said lawyer Evgeny Chernousov.
“With this verdict, the authorities want to push young people to protest, to the streets. Therefore, I would like to appeal to them about restraint,” said Lev Ponomarev. “Under no circumstances should you succumb to provocations, because it is important for them that they commit real offenses, and not far-fetched ones, as was the case in Seva.” The human rights activist also recalled that the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, recently canceled the decision to terminate the criminal case based on the statements of the children beaten in Sokolniki. “However, we would like the investigation to be resumed and conducted by the federal Investigative Committee itself,” Mr. Ponomarev added. Vsevolod himself also stated that he absolutely disagreed with his verdict: “The judge simply repeated word for word what she received from the investigative committee. There was no trial as such.” And his stepfather Mikhail Pashuk added: “For almost two years we lived in a constant feeling of injustice and abomination. But we will continue to fight. Because if we don’t fight, then we won’t be human. After all, even animals fight for their children.”