A Kuban pensioner who incriminated himself under torture has been released after three years in pretrial detention.

A jury of the Tikhoretsky District Court of Krasnodar Krai unanimously acquitted Viktor Krasnoborodko, a pensioner from the village of Novorozhdestvenskaya, who was accused of murdering his stepson. The man, who spent three years and three months in pretrial detention, was released in the courtroom.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," Viktor Krasnoborodko, a resident of Novorozhdestvenskaya, complained of torture by security forces, who demanded that he confess to beating his stepson, the man himself told human rights activists. By September 2023, investigators had five times refused to consider Krasnoborodko's complaint about torture, during which security forces extracted a confession to beating his stepson. However, they succeeded in obtaining a new investigation into the actions of the security forces. Krasnoborodko has been arrested, and his case has been transferred to court. His family doesn't believe he's guilty and calls the case fabricated.

On May 28, a jury at the Tikhoretsky District Court in Krasnodar Krai unanimously acquitted Viktor Krasnoborodko, a pensioner from the village of Novorozhdestvenskaya, who was accused of murdering his stepson. He spent three years and three months in pretrial detention awaiting sentencing. After the verdict was announced, Viktor was released right in the courtroom, the Team Against Torture (included in the register of foreign agents) reported today.

Viktor Krasnoborodko's case has been under review since June 2023, with the next hearing scheduled for June 4, according to information on the Tikhoretsky District Court website.

Galina Krasnoborodko, the mother of the deceased and the wife of the accused, told the "Caucasian Knot" that she is experiencing triple grief: the death of her son, the unfounded accusation against her husband, and the fact that her husband was subjected to horrific torture. "Andrei's death is a terrible grief for our entire family. It's unimaginable that investigators could have made up anything and tortured my husband to force him to incriminate himself. The real criminals are free, and this injustice makes our shared family grief even greater," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She said her husband found her son in serious condition on August 28, 2022. "My husband worked as a security guard and farmed during the day. We own a house at 78 Kommunisticheskaya Street, which we gave to Andrey. We also have a farm there. We live across the street from each other. We used to visit each other. He came to our place to eat, and we came to his. Viktor was walking home after work around 9:00 a.m. and stopped by to help Andrey with some chores, as usual. The video shows him entering and, exactly 47 seconds later, coming out and making phone calls. He called me and told me to come immediately, then called the police and an ambulance, as I later learned. I ran quickly, and his face was completely gone. I went into the room with him and saw Andrey on the couch. The left side of his head was smashed in, and he was unconscious. There was a pool of blood underneath him," Galina said.

The woman said that her son "lay in a coma in the hospital for a month, under medical treatment." "My husband and I went every day. A month later, our son woke up and even smiled at us. How could he smile at Viktor Nikolaevich if he had beaten him like that? He even started eating, but spoke weakly and quietly. One day, I stayed with him and asked him to name those who had beaten him, and he gave me two names. As soon as I heard these names from my son, I immediately ran to the police and asked the local police officer to come and question my son, but I was refused. The police officer said he didn't have time for it," she said. However, on September 19, 2022, security forces began to beat a confession out of her husband. "Under torture, he wrote a confession, and they opened a criminal case under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And on November 5, our son was gone. He died without ever being questioned by the police," Galina Krasnoborodko said.