"In order to suppress the will"

In the coming days, the next meeting in the criminal case of torture will be held in Zakamensk (Buryatia), the application of which is suspected of three police officers. According to investigators, physical violence was applied to the detainees who were convicted of the theft of three tons of cedar nuts. In the bench of the defendants - three police officers, one of whom has not yet been fired from law enforcement agencies. All accused employees are free under subscription about the lack of departure and continue to intimidate their victims, fining them for "excess of speed by bicycle" and preventing the adoption of one of the affected nieces, whose father committed suicide after interrogation in the local police department in the same case.

Police officers from the Department of Internal Affairs of Zakamensk were charged under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "Exceeding official powers using violence and special equipment." The maximum term of punishment for it is 7 years in prison. The events mentioned in the criminal case took place exactly a year ago, in September 2016. Two residents of Zakamensk, Nikolai Balandin and Dmitry Rabzhaev , decided to steal three tons of cedar nuts from the warehouse of a local entrepreneur, taking advantage of the fact that the guard of the warehouse was Balandin's brother. The crime was quickly disclosed - the watchman was taken to the police, after which he handed over his brother and his accomplice. A few days later, the warehouse guard was found hanged. The lawyers of Balandin and Rabzhaev are sure that he, like their clients, was tortured, although the Investigative Committee refused to recognize the watchman as victims of torture.

Zakamensk on the map of Russia

Balandin and Rabzhaev were detained on the same day as the warehouse watchman, and the police, to win the time, issued their detention under the administrative article "drinking alcohol in a public place." After “interrogations”, both detainees got to the local hospital with multiple injuries, described in detail in the case file along with the methods of torture. In the summer of 2017, Balandin and Rabzhaev were sentenced to conditional terms for the stealing of nuts (half of which disappeared without a trace after it was found by police).

Now the court is already considering the case against three local police officers , two of whom have already been dismissed from the police - the former head of the criminal investigation department of the Zakamensky department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Erdem Khazhitov , as well as the operatives of Vladimir Bazarsadaev and David Abramov . All the defendants are under a recognizance not to leave and can meet their recent victims every day.

According to the lawyer Roman Sukachev, torture in the police and the impunity of the police who use them, became the norm in Buryatia - even local lawyers reluctantly take up such cases (Sukachev himself goes to court meetings, his colleague defending Dmitry Rabzhaev, from Irkutsk). Nevertheless, the defense intends to seek real terms for the conclusion for policemen accused of torture, although most often the courts, as Sukachev says, are sentenced by guilty law enforcement officials by conditional terms.

- This happened in the fall of 2016 in Buryatia. On the border with Mongolia there is such a town of Zakamensk. There, several citizens wanted to commit a crime - to steal nuts from the base. They stole them. But police officers found that they were involved in the commission of a crime. And by dinner, this case was actually revealed: they took the victims, brought to the department, demanded that they confess. At first they refused to admit. They began to torture. When, after torture, the victims admitted that they were involved in the theft, the police began to demand that they also indicate other people who supposedly commit a crime with them. The victims refused to do this because they either did not know the people [photographs] of which were shown by the police, or did not communicate with them - in general, they did not want to stipulate anyone.

As a result of torture, both went to the hospital, underwent prolonged treatment. The Investigative Committee, in principle, quickly revealed this crime and began to work. However, in the case there was a third victim, who, according to witnesses, also caused bodily harm. This is the brother of one of the victims, Balandin. He hanged himself within a day from the moment of torture. He did not go to the hospital. For the victims-for unknown, at least for me, reasons-for some reason he does not pass. I only know that the examination that opened the corpse did not find intravital bodily harm. Although relatives say that he was also all blue and limped after he returned from the interrogation. But for some reason he does not go through the victims in this case.

- Hanging is the watchman of the base, where did the nuts be stolen from?

- Yes.

- What kind of torture were applied to the detainees who were delivered to the police department?

- One of the most healthy police officers, Bazarsadaev (1 meter 91 cm tall, with his words, and weighing more than 100 kg), immediately approached the Balandin and asked how much he weighs. He replied to him that 50. The policeman took him under the armpits, threw him and threw him to the floor (according to the case materials, Bazarsadaev made six such shots. - approx. RS) . Then they kicked him, beat him. He was put on handcuffs. A torture machine was made from the chair. This is an ordinary office chair, covered in black material. It is put on the floor in such a way that the back lies on the floor. A person is planted on this chair so that under his knees there remains the part on which a person sits. Hands fasten the handcuffs behind the legs. As a result, a person seems to hang on this chair. His hands are numb, legs, he is immobilized. The chair turns into such a torture machine. You can’t get off it yourself.

From the materials of the criminal case No. 52-2016-103:

"Bazarsadaev pulled off Balandin's wrists with an unidentified elastic object, at the same time Abramov turned the chair and laid it on the floor of the office, and Khazhitov, extinguishing the tied hands of Balandin through the legs of a chair, thus put him on an inverted chair, fixing Balandin on a chair, thereby immobilizing him and depriving him of the opportunity to move them out of freezing and resisting them unlawful Acts, taking the polymer packet unidentified by the investigation, used it as an instrument of the crime, going behind Balandin and, realizing that he causes this Balandin special torment and suffering, he threw the packet onto the latter’s head and blocked the oxygen access to the respiratory tract with the indicated package for a short time. Blows in the chest area on the right, after which it stored a baliland at least five hits in the chest area "

Police officers held him, beat him, kicking him, and all three. There was also another, fourth police officer and expert in the office. The torture expert did not use, did not help police officers commit a crime, but another police officer sat and assented his colleagues, persuading the Balandin, my victim to admit the crime and “regret his own mother”. Then the executions stopped. Balandin was brought out allegedly, but they brought him out in order to spray in his face from a spray can. As a result, as Balandin says, his snot and saliva flowed for several hours.

- Did the detainees admit after that?

- Yes. They really committed this crime. They were condemned by the court by conditional terms. Now the defense [accused by the police] indicates that they actually worked with organized criminals, justifying it that illegal methods of investigation and inquiry were applied to them.

- Was it easy to bring the case against police officers to court? Are the accused in custody? Were they fired from the police?

- One of the police officers works, two are dismissed. The matter, in principle, was not difficult. There were nuances, but it moved. There are victims in the case, there are bodily harm. They were in the hospital, all this was recorded by experts, there is a witness who was directly present at the same time. Therefore, there were no delays.

From the materials of the criminal case No. 52-2016-103:

"Bazarsadaev, being in an office, in order to suppress Balandin’s will in a possible denial of involvement in a completely crime, threw him to the ceiling at least six times, which made Balandin at least six times and hit the floor, while experiencing physical pain and moral suffering."

Another thing is that the third victim, the watchman, does not go through the victim. The investigation did not work out in this case. The defense believes that our victims believe that he was brought to suicide. We believe that he hanged himself because he handed over his brother under torture. Probably, it was morally bothering him. But Balandin himself says: "We did not talk about this at all." Why? Because both suffered from police officers and were without complaints about each other. My opinion is that the guy hanged himself because the police tortured him and he showed him to his own brother that he had committed a crime.

- Do the detained police officers admit their guilt in torture?

We are afraid to face police officers much more than bandits

- No, they do not recognize. They are sitting on the 51st ( an article by the Constitution , which allows not to testify against himself and their close relatives. - Note. RS) . They behave boorishly, with grin. They still did not understand that they were no longer the owners of life. The fact is that in our distant areas, police officers consider themselves just such. A policeman is such a person who believes that he caught God for a beard and can do anything. We are afraid to deal with police officers in the areas much more than with bandits. Because police officers can switch to you, you will also get it if you complain. There are more supervision in cities, but I and there were police officers who have six reprimands, for example, disciplinary sanctions. There is a lot of mess, but there is no one to work. They are simply punished by reprimands, but not fired.

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Nikolai Balandin and Dmitry Rabzhaev - About torture in the Department of Internal Affairs of Zakamensk

- How ordinary for Buryatia are torture in the police?

-The fact is that I myself live in the Trans-Baikal Territory, in Chita. My partners from the "Zone of Law" came to the conclusion that Buryatia from the zero stalled in this development. Not only do police officers commit crimes there, including murders (I have such things). The Investigative Committee does not bring them to the end. This is due to the fact that forensic experts do not properly conduct examination. For example, there is a case where police officers killed a guy in a service car. He was beaten, I have posthumous photos, but as a result, no one was responsible. Experts wrote that he generally died of a heart attack. In fact, he was detained, he was in the department for a day. Now all the employees "formalize" this way.

From the materials of the criminal case No. 52-2016-103:

"Then, Bazarsadaev approached the Balandin on the right and, clasping his neck with his hand, began to squeeze the organs of the neck, thereby making it difficult for Balandin's free breath. After which Khazhitov fisted with sufficient force at least three strokes in the head."

"At the same time, Khazhitov, realizing that the will of Balandin is broken, unknown by the investigation by an electric shock device at least twice acted in the Balandin shoulder with generated electrical impulses."

In our case, Balandin was also drawn up: they draw up a protocol that supposedly employees detained a person to drink alcohol in a public place. And he is detained under an administrative article. This is also a crime, but the Investigative Committee of Buryatia closes his eyes to this. In particular, the department for particularly important matters. I get to Zakamensk from Chita for a day. This is a forced measure. The second lawyer is from Irkutsk. Why? In our opinion, in our opinion, there are no lawyers with whom you can work on such cases. As a result, we go to Buryatia and help citizens bring such cases to a logical end. Then we will also help them file claims against the state. Therefore, there are many complaints from Buryatia that police officers commit crimes, and with impunity.

- What punishment in your case threatens the detained police officer?

- Usually give a conditional term. For my practice, more than 40 police officers went through the bench of the defendants - and only a few units give real imprisonment. In this case, I expect that the accused will be given from 4 to 6 years of real term. If this period is less or the punishment will not be associated with imprisonment at all, then I will recommend that the victim appeal the sentence and demand that the accused suffer a real punishment.

- Some of the police officers who participated in these torture, and their victims now continue to live in this rather remote settlement. They are all free. They can meet. Did your clients have threats from these police officers?

- There were no threats. When I came for the last time, my client showed me an administrative protocol. He was brought to administrative responsibility for excess of speed by bicycle! Police officers said: you drive, but there is no bicycle path. This is ridiculous, because in Zakamensk there are no pedestrian paths everywhere, but there is no bicycle even even more so. The brother who hanged himself had a daughter. Balandin is now engaged in her upbringing, trying to issue guardianship. He believes that the guardianship authorities are biased, because they want to take the child into an orphanage. It is hard, of course, in this regard to help them. He would be married, would lead a normal lifestyle, would not be judged, or at least with a repaid criminal record, it would be easier. And here, of course, is hard. They say that they drove up to him, but there is no evidence of this kind, at least a video or photo.

Police officers are always trying to somehow go to the victims

Basically, police officers are always trying to somehow go to victims through friends, through parents. But in this case, they did not actually provide power pressure. If it were, we would immediately illuminate it and demanded to change the preventive measure. How many such cases we had - the Investigative Committee, investigators always meet. Because the victim and his testimony are the foundation of the criminal case.

- How then it turned out that one of the participants in these torture was not only not detained, but not even fired and continues to work now in the same police department?

-In fact, our leadership on TV says one thing-“the fight against corruption, the struggle against lawlessness”-but in fact, something does not change much. In Buryatia, and in Transbaikalia, what to hide, there is no inevitability of punishment. There is no such thing that if a police officer committed a crime, then he became non -browning. The system is always trying to protect its employee. So this year I established a crime against two children. They were tortured and beaten. As a result, the guy caused a compression fracture of the spine. At the local level, they began to hide. This information has come to me. One of the deputies asked me to help. I went to the area, documented all this, transferred to the Investigative Committee and reporters. The first thing the police press service began to do is to disseminate information that I came up with this. As a result, all the same, the case will be sent to court the other day. It depends on the leadership. The leadership, I believe, should be attracted at the highest level, not only for the fact that they became possible, but also for the fact that in fact the police officer is already in court, and he still works for them.

- How ended the case of the theft of nuts, in addition to conditional terms? Did you manage to return the nuts?

Part of these nuts, which was already under the control of police officers, disappeared without a trace

- The police officers immediately found nuts, because the convicts said where they store them in the car, and where this car is located. 100% of the nuts found 100% nuts, brought to the warehouse. And then part of these nuts, which was already under the control of police officers, disappeared without a trace. As a result, my victims caused any damage to the owner of the nuts. He was damaged by police officers. Behind them, these nuts were fixed, and it somehow happened that they disappeared. Then we will understand how it happened, to try, at least. And we will also assess why, nevertheless, Balandin’s late brother did not become a victim in this criminal case. Why did the expert see his bodily harm and, in general, why the investigation in this case did not focus on. Just as it did not emphasize the fact that Balandin was actually detained by police officers at home for lunch, released him late at night and, in order to legitimize their actions, drew up an administrative protocol on him. Although in fact he was not drunk. This is also a crime. But the Investigative Committee did not give this assessment, ”says lawyer Roman Sukachev .

Criminal cases of torture and beatings in the police and places of imprisonment are regularly in the focus of the Russian media. The most famous case of recent years was the story of Ildar Dadin , who was tortured in a correctional colony No. 7 in Karelia. In January 2017, in the Angara, human rights activists managed to achieve charges of abuse of authority to three local policemen, whom a large resident of the city of Usol-Sibirsky accuses of torture. For five and a half hours, a woman was beaten with the use of a electric shocker, forcing her to admit the murder of a neighbor. Radio Liberty alsowrote in detail about torture in colonies for minors - the verdict for one of the most high -profile such cases, convicted employees of the Belorechensky educational colony in the Krasnodar Territory are now trying to appeal. Two weeks later, September 26, there will be a chance to reduce his punishment with police officers convicted in a high -profile case of torture in the "Zarechny" ATS Yekaterinburg . On March 27, 2017, the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of the city found five police officers guilty of being beaten and strangled by the detainees, and then tried to hide the traces of their crime.