Baksan: figurants of criminal case complain about police pressure

Temirkan Ashabokov, Irina Tanova and Arthur Tanov, residents of the city of Baksan, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), report that power agents in masks tried to get into their house. According to their version, the police want to exert pressure on them in the context of the criminal case earlier initiated against them, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports.

Mr Ashabokov writes in his application to the HRC that in the evening on September 14, when there was nobody at home, power agents in masks tried to break the door of his house. His neighbours saw it and called his father. He came home and refused to let policemen in without an advocate, says the message of the HRC "Memorial", received by the "Caucasian Knot" on September 19.

According to the above application, power agents wanted to summon Temirkan Ashabokov to the "Baksansky" inter-district police division for questioning as a witness in some robbery case. Policemen gave the subpoena to Ashabokov's father and then left.

Residents of Baksan Arthur Tanov and his sister Irina Tanova also learned about policemen's actions in their home from the neighbours. According to the neighbours, law enforcers in masks broke down the door of their flat with a sledgehammer; and then some of them went away in two Cazel vans without registration number plates, the message of the HRC "Memorial" says.

When she came home, Irina Tanova saw that the entrance door was broken; and in her flat she was met by A. M. Khotov, the deputy head of the criminal search division of the "Baksansky", the district policeman A. T. Nyrov, an operative agent and witnesses. According to Irina, all the things in the rooms were scattered on the floor.

Khotov showed her a search warrant and explained that the search was caused by a suspicion that her brother Arthur Tanov had committed an assault on a certain Khashev, a resident of Baksan. During the search nothing illegal was found, as Irina asserts. She said that the power agents took away her brother's passport and her mobile phone.

Arthur Tanov and Temirkan Ashabokov believe that the actions of power agents were illegal and were intended to exert pressure on them, since law enforcers "seek to force them to confess of a crime under Part 1, Article 222 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal purchase, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or bearing weapons, its main parts, ammunition, explosives and explosive devices)."

On the fact of illegal, as the Baksan residents believe, actions of the policemen Tanov and Ashabokov appealed to the Prosecutor's Office of the KBR and to the investigatory division of the inter-district department "Baksansky" of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), says the message of the HRC "Memorial".

Earlier Ashabokov had addressed the HRC "Memorial" stating that on February 13, 2012, planted a self-made grenade on him and tortured him demanding to confess. Then, complaints were submitted to the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office and the Investigatory Committee on the facts of torture and other illegal actions of policemen against Ashabokov. On September 13, 2012, initiation of a criminal case on torture was rejected; however, his advocates plan to appeal against this decision.