CPT demands to check Eskerkhanov's statement about torture

The human rights organization "Committee to Prevent Torture" (CPT) has addressed the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a request to check the statement of Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, one of the defendants in Boris Nemtsov's murder case, that he had been tortured.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the torture, used to "knock out" testimonies, was stated by Eskerkhanov on August 24 at the Basmanny Court of Moscow in the form of a petition lodged prior to consideration by the court of extension of figurants' arrest.

According to the CPT, the figurants in the Nemstov's murder case, namely, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, Zaur Dadaev and Anzor Gubashev had addressed the Moscow branch of the CPT for legal assistance, complaining about illegal methods of pressure on them.

"Eskerkhanov said that he was abused by men in black uniform without insignia, who brought him from the IVS (temporary detention facility) to the Basmanny District Court of Moscow: they photographed him naked; set fire to his beard and face; when moving him inside the courthouse, they struck him on his head, back, in the kidney area," the website of the CPT reports.

Sergey Babinets, the head of the Moscow branch of the CPT, has sent an application to Alexander Bastrykin, the Chairman of the ICRF, asking to check Eskerkhanov's statements.

According to Babinets, should Eskerkhanov words get confirmed, he demanded to initiate a criminal case and to find those who applied torture.

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