The court has acquitted Krasnodar security officials for the third time in the case of beating a disabled person

The Krasnodar Regional Court has acquitted security officers for the third time in the beating of disabled man Yevgeny Manchenko. The case has also been returned to the trial court twice. The prosecutor's office and lawyers are appealing the decision to the cassation court.

As reported by the " Caucasian Knot ," on July 21, 2023, the Krasnodar Regional Court acquitted former patrol officers Vladimir Tatarkov and Vyacheslav Zyabkin in the case of the beating of Krasnodar resident Yevgeny Manchenko. Both officers were granted the right to rehabilitation for "unlawful criminal prosecution." On December 7, 2023, the Cassation Court in Krasnodar overturned the acquittal of the two former police officers and remanded the case for retrial. On June 14, 2024, the Cassation Court remanded the beating case to the Krasnodar Regional Court for the third time. In September 2024, the Krasnodar Regional Court again acquitted  the officers. The text of the second acquittal of the officers in the case of the beating of disabled man Yevgeny Manchenko is virtually identical to the first, human rights activists stated. In January 2025, the Cassation Court in Krasnodar overturned the acquittal of the police officers who beat disabled man Yevgeny Manchenko in 2019 and   remanded  the case to the regional court for a fourth time. The overturning of the acquittal of the officers who beat Krasnodar resident Yevgeny Manchenko gave hope to his family and human rights activists. Six years later, his injured leg still hasn't recovered , and Yevgeny has become afraid to go outside alone.

The Krasnodar Regional Court has acquitted the police officers who beat disabled Krasnodar resident Yevgeny Manchenko for the third time, the "Team Against Torture" ( included in the foreign agent registry ) reported today. This is the fifth time the regional court has overturned the officers' convictions: it had previously returned the case to the prosecutor twice and acquitted the officers twice before. 

Prior to this, the regional court's decisions had been overturned four times by the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction. The cassation court drew the attention of the Chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court to the fact that judges were violating the rights of the victim and failing to observe reasonable timeframes for the consideration of the criminal case. The Krasnodar Regional Prosecutor's Office and lawyers will again appeal the acquittal to the cassation court, human rights activists reported.

According to the case file on the Krasnodar Regional Court website, the appeal hearing against the security forces' sentence began in March. There was a five-month break in the case due to an expert examination. The final hearing took place on December 10, and the results are not reported in the case file.