AI calls to investigate reports of torture of those accused of killing Nemtsov

The reports on torture and ill-treatment by power agents of figurants in Boris Nemtsov's murder case should be investigated as soon as possible, said the international human rights organization "Amnesty International" (AI).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the oppositional politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on February 27 in Moscow. In total, there are five detained suspects of involvement in his murder. On March 10, three of them, namely, brothers Zaur and Shagid Gubashev and Zaur Dadaev, told the members of the Public Oversight Commission (POC), who visited them in custody, that they had been tortured.

On March 11, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) said that the rights defenders-members of the POC, violated the law by asking questions to the detainees on the issues relating to the case, not to their custody conditions.

Today, Andrei Babushkin, a member of the POC, was questioned, as well as Eva Merkachova, who also took part in visiting the detainees. According to her story, investigators stated that there was a misunderstanding and they have no claims to the actions of rights defenders, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The statement of the ICRF about a possible initiation of a criminal case against the persons reporting about facts of torture is absurd, while disregarding the information that they have spread, leads to the profanation of the Russian judiciary, says the AI.

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