19:19, 11 July 2015

Advocate of figurant in Amirov's case doubts that criminal case on torture would be opened

Said Amirov (left) and Yusup Djaparov during court session. Photo by Oleg Pchelov for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

On July 9, at the trial of the former Mayor of Makhachkala Said Amirov, Abdulmajid Akhmedov, one of the defendants, said that he was tortured after detention and during the investigation.

His advocate Rinat Gamidov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he had lodged petitions demanding to check the infliction of bodily injuries to Akhmedov right after he visited his client at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) in Makhachkala.

"I received a reply that pre-investigation checks had been conducted, but the initiation of a criminal case was rejected," said the advocate.

"On Monday, they will show a video of the check of the evidence in situ, where one could see a lot of bruises in Akhmedov's face. The video shows that he is almost unable to speak after he was tortured with electric current," said Gamidov.

However, in his opinion, Akhmedov's evidence is unlikely to become the basis for a criminal case on torture.

According to Gamidov, in his practice, there were no examples of opening criminal cases after reports about beatings. "Typically, they refuse to do it," said Rinat Gamidov.

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

Author: Konstantin Volgin

Source: CK correspondent