The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia denies information about the torture of a Russian tourist by police officers

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia does not confirm the information about the torture of Russian tourist Artem Russkikh by Gagra police officers, who demanded that he confess to planting drugs. this reports Sputnik .

The press service of the department claims that the Russians were taken to the police department in the Gagra district to establish their identity, since the St. Petersburg resident was “outside the tourist recreation area and generally accepted routes.”

“According to the register of persons brought to the duty station of the Internal Affairs Directorate in the Gagra district, citizen A. A. Russian was brought in for identification on April 7, 2021 at 18:20 by the duty task force and, after clarification of the circumstances, released at 20:40,” Sputnik was told in Ministry of Internal Affairs

The internal security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia reported that they began an inspection on April 28 after a request from a Mediazona correspondent. At the same time, the department claims, there have been no statements from the Russians themselves.

The St. Petersburg resident himself said that after the first arrest he was released at about 23:00, but five minutes later he was taken back to the department under the pretext of signing a document. There the Russians continued to be interrogated.

The tourist continued to deny his involvement in selling drugs, which is why the police began to beat him. “Then they put me against the wall, with their hands to the door, and began hitting me in the kidneys from behind. This has never happened to me, I started shouting something about a lawyer. There were a lot of blows, at some point I said: “Let me tell you everything calmly,” recalls Russkikh.

The St. Petersburg resident’s story about traveling to Abkhazia seemed like a lie to the security forces, so they again put the Russians in a car and took them to a vacant lot, where they beat him “in a circle” and then tried to hang him. The torture continued near a small mountain river. The detainee was doused with his head in ice water several times, which later caused him to develop otitis media.

Hoping that the bullying would stop, the St. Petersburg resident lied to the security forces that he had made a bookmark and could show the place where he hid the drugs. After the deception was revealed, the Russians began to be kicked and threatened that they would plant drugs.

According to the tourist, he was released only at six in the morning the next day. Doctors recorded three fractures of his ribs on the right side, an injury to his right kidney, multiple bruises, abrasions and hematomas on his face, head, body and limbs. The diagnosis of Sochi doctors was confirmed by the St. Petersburg Bureau of Forensic Medicine.

Russkikh, together with his wife, wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General's Office of Abkhazia. Russian departments did not respond to the message from St. Petersburg, but in Abkhazia they replied that the appeal had been transferred to the prosecutor’s office of the Gagra district.