Policeman suspected of attacking human rights defender Kalyapin

A police major is suspected of attacking Igor Kalyapin, the founder of the "Committee against Torture"*; the policeman has been fired, the Human Rights Council (HRC) has informed. Rights defenders don't exclude that the attack was associated with Igor Kalyapin's activities. The police have stated that the conflict occurred on a domestic basis.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 24, Igor Kalyapin was hospitalized with a suspected brain concussion after being beaten up. He was attacked by an unknown person who tried to cut his face and strangle him.

Kalyapin's attacker was a police major, Eva Merkacheva, a HRC member, has informed, adding that a criminal case was opened against the policeman.

"Colleagues say that they noticed the major's strange behaviour. When he's drunk, he becomes so aggressive that it can pose a real threat ... It is obvious that a policeman with such a level of aggression, who does not know how to control himself, treated human rights defenders as malicious enemies," Ms Merkacheva wrote on her Telegram channel.

Earlier, Kalyapin said that the attacker introduced himself as a policeman and said that he needed to kill him.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this January, posters accusing Kalyapin of supporting terrorists appeared on the doors of his mother's entrance and apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. The appearance of the posters had to do with Ramzan Kadyrov's statement, Kalyapin then suggested.