Rights defenders consider court’s decision in case on torture of Debishev to be a trick

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya has cancelled the decision of a lower instance court that upheld the investigators’ refusal to institute a criminal case on a complaint about torture filed by Grozny theatre actor Timur Debishev. The transfer of the case for reconsideration does not allow appealing to a court of cassation outside the republic and to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), notes a lawyer of the “Committee against Torture” (CaT).

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in September 2019, Dmitry Piskunov, the head of the CaT’s North-Caucasian branch, said that investigators had already four times refused to institute a criminal case on the Timur Debishev’s complaint about torture after his detention. Forensic experts confirmed that Debishev had been tortured with electric current, but investigators preferred to accept the law enforcers' version.

On May 18, the Staropromyslovskiy District Court of Grozny re-considered the complaint of human rights defenders and again refused to grant it. Human rights defenders have challenged the above decision at the Supreme Court of Chechnya, and today, it has cancelled the decision of the Staropromyslovskiy District Court of Grozny and sent the case for reconsideration, reports Leysan Mannapova, a lawyer of the Committee against Torture.

“This time, Judge of the Supreme Court has cancelled the decision of the lower instance court, because Timur Debishev was not notified of the consideration of the complaint in the court of first instance. We get the impression that they are deliberately looking for any, the smallest, formal reason to cancel [the decision of the Staropromyslovskiy District Court]. And this ping pong game goes on,” Leysan Mannapova said.

The lawyer has emphasized that the next return of the complaint to the first instance court for reconsideration does not provide an opportunity to exhaust the possibilities of internal protection and to submit a complaint to the ECtHR, as well as to send a complaint to a court of cassation.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 24, 2021 at 02:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.