Another case of police brutality came to light in Russia on Tuesday with the announcement that two policemen from Kostroma violently beat and tortured two detainees during an interrogation in 2010.
The two policemen, Konstantin Goryachev and Maxim Ponomaryov, detained two residents of Koryakovo in March 2010 on suspicion they had stolen a car.
During interrogation, the two officers beat the detainees in an effort to extract confessions.
Later Goryachev and Ponomaryaov handcuffed one of the men, identified as Ivkov, and continued beating him, causing him to lose consciousness several times, Judge Vladimir Razuvayev said. The police also tortured Ivkov with electricity.
Later, it emerged that Ivkov was not involved in the theft and other people were convicted of the crime.
The court subsequently awarded Ivkov compensation of 50,000 rubles ($1,707).
Goryachev and Ponomaryov were tried on police abuse charges and received suspended sentences. One was dismissed from the service but the other retained his post.
State Prosecutor Yevgeny Zhigulin said he would challenge the lenient sentences. Ivkov also said he would seek to bring Goryachev and Ponomaryov to justice.
The police in Russia have faced a spate of scandals in the last few months involving deaths in custody and other abuses.
Last week, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said new measures are aimed at tightening police discipline would be introduced.
On March 28, two policemen and their accomplice from the Siberian Kemerovo Region were charged with beating to death a 25-year-old man in December.
“The officers interrogated the man his role in several crimes. They illegally moved him to a private garage. The policemen and their accomplice tortured the detainee to force him to admit his guilt,” the Investigative Committee said.
In March, Nurgaliyev fired the head of a district police department in the Russian republic of Tatarstan after a detainee died in custody after police allegedly sodomized him with a bottle.
The victim, Kazan resident Sergei Nazarov, 52, died while being treated in hospital for severe colon damage, shortly after his arrest on March 9. Police say Nazarov was detained for disorderly conduct, but his relatives claim the charges against him may be false.
Nazarov managed to tell medical staff at the hospital that he was raped and beaten up by policemen, according to his relatives. Preliminary examinations found his injuries were caused by a blunt object, and “he could not have done it to himself.”
