Kabardino-Balkaria: local resident asserts that he confessed of keeping grenade under power agents' torture

Nuraed Erizhokov, a resident of the city of Prokhladny, Kabardino-Balkaria, has addressed human rights defenders asking to help to restore his rights violated by power agents. The man alleges that policemen planted a grenade into his pocket and then tortured him into confession of complicity with militants and possession of weapons.

The incident with Erizhokov's detention happened on April 7, at about 11:00 a.m. The 29-year-old man was driving his car in Prokhladny, when his way was blocked by unidentified people in masks dressed in camouflage and civilian clothes, who dragged him out of the car and searched him.

According to Erizhokov, when they searched his car, one of the persons in mask, as if doing his personal search, planted some heavy objects into his pockets. Then, they asked him to take money out of his pockets. Nuraed put his hands into his pockets and touched the planted objects, leaving his fingerprints on them. A few minutes later policemen seized a grenade and a fuse out of his pockets.

The policemen threatened Erizhokov that "if he was not convicted, they would kill him themselves." In the presence of their witnesses, the policemen filled in some papers; then, they put Erizhokov into the car, put a black plastic bag over his head and took him, as it became clear later, to the OVD (Interior Division) of Dolinsk, the young man asserts. According to his story, there he was tortured with electric current, demanding to confess of complicity in illegal armed formations and storing weapons.

Unable to bear the torture, he signed some documents. "Policemen said that if I signed the documents, I would be sentenced conditionally, because I have three small children and sick liver. After that, I felt strong pain in my heart, and they brought some drugs to me. One of the policemen said: "Let's stop with him; otherwise he may die here," said Nuraed Erizhokov.

Currently, he is kept at the IVS (temporary detention facility) of Prokhladny and is suspected of having committed an offence under Part 1, Article 222 (illegal acquisition, storage, transportation or bearing of firearms and ammunition), of the Russian Criminal Code.

Erizhokov has stated that traces of torture are on his body; however, he did not tell about it to IVS personnel, being afraid that he would be tortured again. On April 12, the lawyer Elena Bairamkulova, whom Erizhokov's relatives hired as an advocate, submitted a petition for her client's forensic medical examination; however, the petition was rejected. She plans now to apply the same request to the court, where the case has been delivered. This is stated in the message of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which was received by the "Caucasian Knot" office.