“Do you think the cops are all assholes?”: a protester from Voronezh spoke about torture in the basement of a sushi delivery service during arrest at a rally

About five people beat Alexander Chernikov, a participant in the procession on January 31 in Voronezh. The victim is sure that there were police officers in civilian clothes. about this He spoke in a video published by Navalny's local Headquarters.

During the rally, Chernikov was standing at a distance from other protesters when he was seized by unknown persons and dragged to the basement of the Umami sushi delivery service on Koltsovskaya Street. On the day of the rally, the headquarters posted a video in which Alexander was taken away and dragged into the premises.

“They threw me on the stairs leading to the basement. The jacket got into my eyes, I couldn't see what was going on around me. I rolled head over heels down those stairs. They immediately picked me up, carried me inside, closed the door behind them from the inside, so that no one could get in there, ”explains Chernikov.

There, unknown people, according to Alexander, began to kick him on the back and shout:

“Che, are you against Putin? Why did you come out here to rally? Do you think that cops are all goats?

After that, one of them put his knee between Chernikov's shoulder blades and tried to find out his personal data. All this happened in front of the store employees.

Alexander said only his name. After that, an unknown man "took [him] by the hair and began to beat his face on the tile, on the corner between the wall and the floor."

Chernikov's documents were taken away. “They turned me around, but when I tried to look at them to remember their faces, they started hitting me in the eyes,” the victim explained to Novaya Gazeta.

Navalny's headquarters, citing the protesters, clarified that those who took Chernikov to the basement participated in other detentions.

After long beatings, Alexander was handed over to uniformed policemen. This can be seen in the footage taken by the participants of the rally.

“The policemen, not interested in why my whole face was broken, what was happening here at all, tied me up, took me to the car and took me to [street] Kirov, where buses with the rest of the protesters were parked.” In the bus, according to Alexander, law enforcement officers recorded beatings, after which they took him to the police station.

The police department drew up a protocol against Alexander under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses ( Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting ). He said that all detainees were forced to undergo fingerprinting. Those who refused were kept there until late in the evening.

Today Alexander submitted an application to the Investigative Committee, FBK* lawyer Danil Novikov helped to draft it. Chernikov's trial was scheduled for February 16.

*The organization is included by the Ministry of Justice in the list of NGOs performing the function of a foreign agent