Lawyer of teenager, beaten by policemen, satisfied with court verdict

Representatives of a teenager, beaten at the police station of the village of Khebda of the Shamil District of Dagestan, are satisfied with the court's verdict of guilty to the police officer. Till present, representatives of the convicted police officer have not commented on his sentence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that at night of July 18-19, 2010, law enforcement agents detained a teenager and brought him to the OVD (Interior Division) building of the village of Khebda of the Shamil District. After that, according to the teenager's relatives, the police officers beat him, forcing him to confess to stealing a drill. As a result, according to the examination, he got deaf in his one ear. The defendant Magomed Magomedov was accused of exceeding his power by using violence (Paragraph "a", Part 3, Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On July 12, Magomed Magomedov was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment.

Aziz Kurbanov, the teenager's lawyer, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the party of the victim is satisfied the sentence. He has also noted that during the trial, the defendant's guilt was fully proved.

The party of the victim presented to the court the medical documents, "proving the fact of beating of the teenager and confirming that the beating resulted in brain injury and hearing loss in one ear. Those documents are the act of the survey and the report of the forensic examination," Aziz Kurbanov said.

He has also recalled that during the investigation, there were attempts of pressure from the defendant and his relatives to the victim and his family. "On March 9, 2011, an unidentified woman made a call to the mobile phone number, belonging to Aishat Guseinova, the victim's mother. The unidentified woman threatened her and demanded to change the Makhmud's testimony against Magomed Magomedov," the lawyer said.

Referring to Aishat Guseinova, the lawyer stated that the unidentified woman stated that if Makhmud did not give up his testimony, he "would be at risk." She also offered money for rejection of the accusations against Magomed Magomedov. "All those facts were made public during the debate," the lawyer stated.

According to Aziz Kurbanov, the case against other suspected police officers Sh. Magomedaliev and G. Nurudinov has been separated into a single case, and it awaits consideration.

After sentencing, the party of the prosecution refused to comment.

On June 1, during the debate, prosecutor Zapir Magomedov demanded to sentence the defendant to 4 years of imprisonment in a common security colony.

In his accusatory speech, the prosecutor has noted that the defendant Magomed Magomedov, the police officer, committed the crime, which discredited the state power. "It leads to distrust and even hatred of the population with respect to the local authorities. In that regard, many young people go to the forest and fight with weapon against the authorities," the prosecutor stated.

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" was watching the situation. "We are satisfied with the result that ended the trial," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Sirazhutdin Datsiev, the HRC's representative in Dagestan.