North Ossetia: ex-policeman sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for torturing detainee with electric current

In North Ossetia, the court has sentenced Soslan Dzagoev, a 29-year-old criminal detective from Vladikavkaz, to 3.5 years in prison for abuse of power, expressed through beating and torturing a detainee.

According to investigators, on February 4, 2011 at about 5:00 p.m., power agents brought a resident of Vladikavkaz, suspected of committing a murder, to a police station. Making sure that the man had nothing to do with the murder; two policemen then took him to one of the rooms, handcuffed him and tied with a rope, and started beating. Investigators believe that in that way the policemen tried to knock out a confession of stealing some property.

Having failed in their efforts to force him into confession, they tortured the victim for a long time with electric current, causing numerous injuries qualified as the light health damage, the website of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) wrote on November 2.

The court has sentenced Dzagoev to 3.5 years of imprisonment in the colony with the further deprivation of the right to hold positions in law enforcement bodies for 2 years.

Another suspect of beating and torturing the detainees – a 36-year-old senior officer of the criminal investigation has disappeared, the charge against him was brought in absentia; and he was put on the federal wanted list, the "Interfax" reports.