A video proving the guilt of the police disappeared from the case of lawyer Benyash

On February 11, the Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar held the first preliminary hearing in the case of Kuban lawyer Mikhail Benyash, who was illegally detained and beaten by law enforcement officers, and subsequently accused of using violence against police officers during detention.

During the preliminary hearing, it turned out that the video recording of the lawyer’s illegal detention was handed over to the investigator, but it is not in the case file.

“... the videos that the defense provided to the investigator in the criminal case are missing. How? Yes, that's it! They simply aren't there. These recordings, made by the only witness for the defense, prove the guilt of the victims themselves...” writes Benyash’s defense attorney Alexey Avanesyan on his Facebook page.

Avanesyan also notes that the preliminary hearing in the case took place behind closed doors, and Benyash’s interests were represented in court by eight lawyers. Three well-founded requests were made to return the criminal case to the prosecutor, two to request evidence and one to exclude it. The prosecutor asked for a day to think it over.

Let us recall that on September 9, 2018, lawyer Mikhail Benyash was arrested by the police in Krasnodar, where he arrived to provide legal assistance to participants in an unauthorized protest against pension reform. Police officers arrested Mikhail Benyash on suspicion of violating the order of organizing a public protest, based on his post on Facebook.

According to the human rights activist , police officers forced him into a car and snatched his phone from his hands when he tried to make a call. They slammed his head against the car seat and handcuffed him, forcing him to sit face down with his hands behind his back.

When the car arrived at the police station in Krasnodar, Mikhail Benyash was pushed out of the car, causing him to fall and hit his face on the asphalt. He was then dragged into the police station and kept incommunicado for almost eight hours. The human rights activist reported that during this time, police officers beat him several times and pushed him so that he hit his head on a metal safe.

After the beating, Benyash was taken to the hospital twice: they diagnosed abrasions on his face, arms, neck, cheekbone and jaw, hemorrhage in the left eardrum and traumatic otitis media.

On September 11, the human rights activist was arrested for 14 days and sentenced to 40 hours of forced labor for disobeying the order of a police officer and violating the procedure for organizing public protests.

Mikhail Benyash served his administrative arrest in a special detention center in the city of Ust-Labinsk - there was no place for him in the Krasnodar special detention center. On September 23, Mikhail was supposed to be released, but he did not. Instead, he was taken to a temporary detention center due to the fact that a criminal case had been opened against him.

It turned out that after Mikhail Benyash reported being beaten by criminal investigation officers, sergeants Dolgov and Yurchenko turned to the investigative committee with statements stating that lawyer Benyash had bitten them.

“Bitten by a lawyer” Egor Dolgov (left) and Dmitry Yurchenko in court / Photo: Olga Soldatova

On September 23, the human rights activist was charged under Art. 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for violence against a representative of the authorities, to which he allegedly resorted on September 9, when they tried to arrest him. And on September 24, Mikhail Benyash was charged under Art. 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for obstruction of justice. The charges relate to an incident on May 6, 2018, when bailiffs expelled a human rights activist from the courtroom because he interrupted the judge while defending the interests of his client. While being dragged from the courthouse, he seriously injured his leg when he hit the frame of a metal detector.

On September 28, Judge Diana Belyak of the Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar granted the prosecutor’s request and arrested lawyer Mikhail Benyash for two months.

On October 22 and 23, the Krasnodar Regional Court considered appeals against the decision of Judge Diana Belyak on the preventive measure against lawyer Mikhail Benyash. Judge Andrei Mosin, who considered this case, overturned the decision of the Leninsky District Court and replaced the preventive measure against Benyash on a fabricated case against him.

Mikhail Benyash was released on bail of 600 thousand rubles, paid by the Bar Association of the Krasnodar Territory.

Read also: