“Rosbalt”: investigators began checking Zaur Dadaev’s statements about torture

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for Moscow has begun examining allegations of possible torture against ex-fighter of the Sever battalion Zaur Dadaev, who is accused of murdering Boris Nemtsov. Rosbalt reported this with reference to an anonymous source on Monday. The Committee Against Torture knows nothing about the start of the inspection.

At the end of last week, Zaur Dadaev was visited in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center by an employee of the Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Moscow, a source told Rosbalt. According to the agency, the investigator is conducting a pre-investigation check on the statement of the “Committee against Torture” about the possible use of torture and unauthorized forms of interrogation against Zaur Dadaev. Dadaev did not communicate with the investigator without his lawyer and the interrogation was postponed until this week, notes Rosbalt.

Zaur Dadaev said in his complaints that he and his colleague Rustam Yusupov were detained in Magas in Ingushetia, and then taken to an unspecified location. According to Rosbalt, Dadaev claims that they put a plastic bag over his head, depriving him of air, beat him on the head with a plastic bottle filled with water, broke his ears, attached wires to his fingers and toes, and then passed an electric current. Allegedly, unknown persons demanded that Dadaev sign and read out in front of a video camera a ready-made confession in the murder of Nemtsov. Dadaev claims that he agreed to do this.

The head of the Committee against Torture, Igor Kalyapin, told Mediazona that he had not yet been informed about the start of the pre-investigation check.

“No verification actions were carried out with Dadaev. If they really began a pre-investigation check, which they have not yet informed me about, then the investigators must immediately allow our lawyer to see Dadaev. Tomorrow we will have a trial on this very issue in the Basmanny Court, we will appeal against the lawyer’s denial of access to the client,” Kalyapin explained.

Earlier it was reported that investigator Igor Krasnov, who heads the team investigating the murder of Boris Nemtsov, did not allow Committee Against Torture lawyer Evgeny Gubin to see the accused Zaur Dadaev, citing the fact that Dadaev did not consent to his participation in the defense.

Zaur Dadaev is one of five arrested on charges of murdering politician Boris Nemtsov, which was committed in Moscow late on the evening of February 27. After his arrest, Dadaev confessed and said that he himself shot the politician, but later stated that he was tortured during interrogation.