The court sent a Stavropol resident who reported torture to a penal colony.

The Predgorny District Court of Stavropol Krai sentenced Eldar Kulbyakov, who accused security forces of torturing him with electric shocks, to four years in prison after finding him guilty of theft.

As reported by Kavkazsky Uzel, on November 18, the Predgorny District Court of Stavropol Krai held another hearing in the case of Eldar Kulbyakov, who accused security forces of torturing him with electric shocks. According to the father of Kulbyakov, who was accused of theft, the trial was artificially delayed, and the prosecution behaved rudely.

A court in Stavropol Krai sentenced Eldar Kulbyakov in a criminal theft case in mid-March, the "Team Against Torture"* reported today.

Human rights activists recalled the convicted man's story. In May 2024, officers burst into his father's home in the village of Suvorovskaya and forced everyone inside to the floor, including his children and 84-year-old grandfather. Kulbyakov himself was not in the house, but he was soon detained in Yessentuki and taken to the police station.

"They stretched me out and told me the 'executioner' was coming. They spread my arms and attached electrodes to my wrists. It was very painful, but I said they didn't need to torture me; I'd sign everything. They asked what I wanted to confess to. I said, 'Whatever you want,'" Kulbyakov recalled.

He eventually signed a confession and admitted to a crime he claimed he didn't commit. It was later revealed that large-scale operations had been carried out in the region to track down a gang led by the former head of the local criminal investigation department. According to investigators, the gang had been robbing homes for years.

Kulbyakov's father's request to open a criminal case against the police officers who tortured his son was denied 11 times. The regional human rights ombudsman appealed to the prosecutor's office demanding an investigation.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Stavropol Krai appealed a court decision to pay 3.8 million rubles to the family of Khalit Mustafayev, killed by a security officer during a chase in 2020.

* added to the Russian Ministry of Justice's register of foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.