An employee of the Yaroslavl Center “E” stated that he was tortured during his arrest. He himself was accused of torture

The former head of the department for countering extremist organizations of the Yaroslavl Center "E" Ivan Repin complained that the police beat him during his arrest, reports the human rights project "Public Verdict"

The case against Repin was opened in October 2024. At that time he served with the rank of police captain. He was accused of receiving a large bribe (Part 5 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). The former policeman faces up to 12 years in prison. Together with Ivan Repin, his brother Alexander Repin was arrested , who until the verdict remains the deputy head of the regional criminal investigation department, as well as the detective of Center “E” Maxim Gagarin.

Repin claims that during his arrest, police officers Anton Kovalenko and Artem Fedyukin severely beat him and strangled him with a rag until he lost consciousness. Doctors diagnosed the detainee with abrasions, bruises to the head and chest, bruises and ruptured eardrums; he temporarily lost his hearing, human rights activists write.

“Public Verdict” notes that Kovalenko and Fedyukin were already mentioned in the complaint about the torture of spouses from Uglich Natalya Popova and Artem Starkov (last name changed). They were beaten in August, demanding information about their friend. The Investigative Committee never opened a case against the police. Lawyer Irina Biryukova suggested that the case was not opened because a high-ranking police officer participated in the torture.

Ivan Repin believes that “the case against him is directly related to his participation in operational search activities to detain a local crime boss,” who has connections in law enforcement agencies.

Repin himself was named in complaints of violence by security forces. In September 2022, a policeman and other employees of Center “E” participated in the detention and beating of Yaroslavl lawyer and environmental activist Andrei Akimov, who was accused of “discrediting” the army. The lawyer claimed that the police beat him and hung him up by handcuffs. In November of the same year, Akimov’s car was burned . As a result, the lawyer was forced to resign from the library where he worked due to pressure from security forces.