Police apologize for beating Kuban resident

The head of the Primorsko-Akhtarsky division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has apologized to Andrei Popov, a local resident, for beating him by a law enforcer, human rights defenders have reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Evgeny Volkov, a deputy police chief of the Primorsko-Akhtarsky ROVD (District Interior Division) of Kuban (the Krasnodar Territory), was accused of involvement in the beating of Popov after his detention. The prosecutor asked for three years in colony for Volkov, but after he had admitted his guilt and apologized, the prosecutor asked to fine him. The court ordered Volkov to pay a fine of 50,000 roubles. Torture is a serious crime, the court ruling was too lenient, human rights defenders have stated, noting that an apology to Popov could not be accepted in court, since he was not present at the court session.

The head of the convicted policeman has apologized to Andrei Popov for “deliberate and illegal actions of retired police lieutenant colonel Evgeny Volkov, which clearly went beyond the scope of his powers,” the “Team against Torture” (TaT)* has reported.

“For twelve years there has been an obligation to apologize to victims of policemen's illegal actions. However, we see repeatedly that police bosses and perpetrators themselves extremely rarely and reluctantly apologize. We have to remind them of this, and sometimes get it through the courts,” Sergey Babinets, the head of the TaT* has emphasized.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.