In Sochi, at trial in Mardiros Demerchyan's case, witness describes defendant's complaints about torture

On November 14, at the trial in the case against Mardiros Demerchyan, a builder of the Olympic facilities, the court questioned Sergey Sobolev, the head of the surgical ward of the city hospital No. 3. According to the witness, the defendant was brought for his medical examination in a depressed state and with multiple injuries, and he told the doctor that he had been tortured.

"I am not a proctologist; however, while examining patient Demerchyan, I as a doctor discovered damage to his anus in the form of deep bleeding cracks. I asked Demerchyan why he got those injuries, and he replied that he had been tortured. He did not tell me the details. The patient was clearly in a depressed state, and for ethical reasons, I did not to try to ask him, where, how and who inflicted the injuries to him," the doctor has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 12, 2013, Mardiros Demerchyan, a builder of the facilities of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, was detained by the police. On the next day, he was brought to hospital from the police station of the Sochi village of Blinovo. Mardiros Demerchyan stated that the policemen beat him and his colleague and exposed him to torture. On July 26, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) opened a criminal case against Mardiros Demerchyan on suspicion of false denunciation against the employees of the police station of Blinovo.

The law enforcement bodies deny involvement of policemen in infliction of injuries to Mardiros Demerchyan, and investigator refused to institute criminal proceedings against staff members of the police station, where the defendant had been brought to.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.