In Surgut, a traffic police officer received a suspended sentence for beating a car passenger lying on the ground

The Surgut City Court sentenced traffic police officer Ivanov to three years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of two years for beating a passenger who tried to hide from the police, according to the website of the Investigative Committee for the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

According to investigators, on May 27, 2016, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, on Kirtbaya Street in Surgut, traffic police officers stopped a car to check documents. It turned out that the driver did not have a compulsory insurance policy. However, he refused to get into the police car, blocked the doors and tried to drive away.

The police called for reinforcements and another patrol car arrived. “When, after a short time, the car with the offender was stopped, the defendant, exceeding his official authority, groundlessly kicked two times in the lower extremities of the passenger of the detained car, who was lying on the ground and did not offer any resistance,” the department said in a statement.

The video footage published by the Investigative Committee shows that a passenger getting out of the car is forced to lie down on the asphalt, after which Ivanov kicks him twice.

The policeman did not admit guilt. [He] “during interrogations, he stated to the investigator that during the detention of the offender he did not use violence against the passenger of the car, but kicked an object that looked like a ‘grenade,’” reports the Investigative Committee. However, this version was not confirmed by other traffic police officers, the victim and eyewitnesses of the incident.

The court banned Ivanov from working in the police for two years.

As clarifies Ugra-News , convicted police officer Sergei Ivanov connected the criminal case with the fact that in May 2017 he detained the son of the former head of the Ugra traffic police, who provoked an accident while drunk. In addition, Ivanov published video messages in which he spoke about pressure on him from management and corruption in the department.

Updated at 4:26 p.m. The news has been supplemented with information from Ugra-News.