Defence claims violation of Demerchyan’s rights violation at medical re-examination

The investigators dealing with the case of Mardiros Demerchyan, a builder of Olympic facilities in Sochi, have conducted a repeated forensic examination without notifying him and without his participation – a gross violation of the norms of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, said Alexander Boichenko, a Demerchyan’s advocate.

According to Demerchyan, policemen tortured him by inserting an iron bar into his anus, beating him with boxing gloves on the head and teeth, trying to knock out his confession of stealing a cable. As stated by Demerchyan, no medical examination was conducted on the spot."

Alexander Boichenko told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the defence has claims to drawing up of medical records three years ago.

As part of the re-investigation of his case, on February 4 this year, Demerchyan was summoned for a forensic examination.

"The whole re-examination is aimed at proving, without examining Demerchyan himself, that his problems in the anus, broken teeth and bruises were long-standing problems, which worsened after his stay in the police," said the advocate.

According to the expert’s opinion of April 27, six experts, representing the State Budgetary Medical Institution (known as GBUZ) “Forensic Medical Bureau” in Krasnodar, made a conclusion, on the basis of Demerchyan’s medical documents, opinions of Sochi experts and other materials of the criminal case, that the defendant’s statements about the beatings are untenable.

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