A former police officer from the Sverdlovsk region spoke about the concealment of corpses by his superiors. Three criminal cases were opened against him

The Shalinsky District Court placed former district police officer Yuri Zolotko under house arrest for two months, reports Vecherniye Vedomosti . According to E1.ru , three criminal cases were opened against him for abuse of power (Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code). The ex-policeman is accused of using force against detainees in 2019, 2021 and 2022. Zolotko himself denies this and connects his persecution with the fact that he repeatedly complained about his superiors. He also reported on the concealment of unknown corpses.

In February 2022, cemetery workers in the village of Shalya, Sverdlovsk region, were digging a grave for a deceased woman. In the process, they stumbled upon the secret burial of three fresh corpses.

“During the digging, [one of the cemetery workers] Evgeniy hit a hard object with a shovel, we looked and discovered a burial of corpses. He hit the skull with a shovel. At the same time, the corpses were only partially decomposed, and the smell of rot emanated from them. Two corpses looked like adults, one was of small build,” one of the grave diggers, Oleg, wrote in an explanation to the investigator. The document was published by E1.ru.

Cemetery workers called the police. Police Lieutenant Colonel Yuri D. (his full name is not given) and his partner, who arrived at the site of the deputy head of the Shalinsky Ministry of Internal Affairs, did not begin to understand the origin of the bodies.

“[Yuri D.] ordered us to deepen the hole, bury these corpses deeper, so that after that we could bury the deceased Azovtseva, without informing the latter’s relatives. That's what we did. No one took these corpses anywhere or took them anywhere, it seemed strange to me. Criminal corpses or simply ownerless - I don’t know. But even ownerless corpses are not buried together, especially since they were all laid out approximately equally; in my opinion, death occurred at the same time,” wrote cemetery worker Oleg.

According to him, it was unpleasant for him to comply with the policeman’s demand. Later, he told other people about this situation, including district police officer Yuri Zolotko.

Zolotko wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee with a request to conduct an investigation into abuse of authority and concealment of a crime. After this, the Investigative Committee began an investigation under the article on murder (105 of the Criminal Code), E1.ru wrote. However, investigators did not check the actions of the police and dig up the corpses.

Then Zolotko wrote a complaint about the investigators’ inaction to the regional prosecutor’s office. “At a minimum, they [the corpses] should have been taken for examination and the cause of death established,” Zolotko insisted.

In December 2023, security forces finally opened the grave and found three unknown corpses under it. The press service of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee reported that the remains were sent for examination, and Zolotko’s statement about the involvement of security forces in concealing information about the bodies was not confirmed.

“No signs of criminal death have been established,” added senior assistant to the head of the Sverdlovsk Investigative Committee Alexander Shulga.

As E1.ru writes , Zolotko became a district police officer in Shali in 2016. During his work, he complained to his superiors several times. He said that the investigative and operational group, which was on duty, often “did not want” to go to the scene of incidents. Instead, one local police officer was sent to each call.

“...even at home during non-working hours, unarmed [precinct officer]. The fact is that most of the bosses come from operational workers and investigators. For example, now the boss is a former investigator. They have friendly and often family relationships with their colleagues from such services, and they try to hire strangers to the precinct police. And subsequently they unreasonably weigh other people’s work on them,” Zolotko said.

In 2019, Zolotko wrote his first complaint to the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After that, his department changed the duty schedule and revised the boundaries of administrative areas for district police officers, he said. According to Zolotko, his colleagues began to thank him, but his superiors began to treat him worse.

In November 2022, Zolotko was fired “for misconduct discrediting the honor of the law enforcement agency.” In 2023, he was reinstated in his position by court decision, but subsequently another court recognized his dismissal as legal,” said Valery Gorelykh, press secretary of the Sverdlovsk Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On September 2, 2022, Zolotko was returning home when his road was blocked by a previously convicted man, whom the local police officer had prosecuted.

“He was drunk in the company of the same people with previous convictions, and began to insult with obscenities: “Fucking cop” and the like. He didn’t let me get to the entrance. I reprimanded him and tried to get around him. He grabbed me by the clothes and started swinging at me. I, acting within the law, hit him with my hand to free myself. He let me go, and I immediately went home so as not to continue the conflict. I immediately reported to management,” he told E1.ru.

After this, a criminal case was opened against the policeman for intentionally causing minor harm to health (Article 115 of the Criminal Code). They did not initiate a case of attack against him.

E1.ru writes that the police from the department failed to present this case and the internal inspection carried out as a basis for Zolotko’s dismissal. However, in February 2023, the court declared the results of this internal audit illegal, as well as the dismissal order itself. The judge included the testimony of witnesses who confirmed that Yuri Zolotko was attacked. The court also drew attention to the lack of evidence that the victim received an injury (broken nose) on that day. In addition, the judge found that the police hid Zolotko’s report about the attack on him.

“According to my statement about an attack on me, I receive refusals to initiate a case, which are then canceled by the prosecutor’s office. And the fact that I was accused by a previously convicted person who had enmity towards me and who himself attacked me, for some reason this accusation calmly reached the court. They intend to convict me in order to have a formal reason to fire me. The wife of the boss with whom I have a conflict works subordinate to this judge. I asked for a recusal for her, but they refused,” Zolotko said. E1.ru does not specify what happened with the case of intentional bodily harm.

Zolotko also wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee with a request to check the actions of the chief and deputy chief of the Shalinsky District Ministry of Internal Affairs for falsification of his criminal prosecution and concealment of other crimes, including those related to the bodies of unknown people hidden under the grave.

On January 12, 2024, security forces in masks and with machine guns arrived at Zolotko’s house in the village of Kolpakovka and detained him.

“It’s as if they’ve come to take away a dangerous criminal. They told Yuri that they were investigators and that a criminal case had been opened. All this in front of a small child. Personally, they did not show me any documents. They also didn’t say where they took him. They took our phones and gave them back to me only when they were leaving. They didn’t let me call a lawyer,” his wife Kristina told E1.ru.

On January 13, his house was searched. As E1.ru writes, the reason was three criminal cases that were opened against Zolotko back in December 2023. The search warrant, which was obtained by the publication, stated that Zolotko was suspected of beating detainees in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

At the trial to select a preventive measure for him, Zolotko said that one of the victims threatened his wife with a knife in the courtroom.

“I am surprised by the three criminal cases that have been opened against me. Naturally unfounded. You can see for yourself - the victim came with a friend who threatened my wife with a knife right in court. The victim himself admitted that right at the police station he pressed me with his elbow and pressed me against the wall. That is, such people are now testifying against me. And police officers who are subordinate to the chief, against whom I wrote a statement, testify,” he said.

On January 14, a picket was held in Shali in support of the former district police officer: public activist Maxim Ezdakov came out with a poster “Freedom for Zolotko.” He told reporters that, according to statements from former detainees, on the basis of which Zolotko is being prosecuted, in 2019-2021 they refused to initiate criminal cases.

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