Rights defenders demand to resume inquiry into torture of four Anapa residents

A Krasnodar court has upheld the termination of the criminal case on the torture of Anapa residents, Artyom Ponomarchuk, Aram Arustamyan, Karen and Erik Engoyan, detained in 2015, the Committee against Torture (CaT) has informed. Defence intends to appeal against this decision.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that relatives of the above young men stated that they had confessed to a crime they had never committed under severe torture. The torture case was opened in November 2017, and since then, investigators have illegally stopped the case for four times, and suspended it for four more times. On July 20, 2020, the investigator terminated the inquiry for the fifth time, citing the absence of a crime event, the CaT has reported today.

The CaT's lawyers, who represented the victims' interests, appealed to the court with a complaint against the last investigator's decision; and on May 18, 2021, the Oktiabrsky District Court of Krasnodar refused to satisfy the complaint, the CaT's message says.

This district court's judgement will be appealed against, defenders assert.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 25, 2021 at 11:55 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.