In the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into the use of torture in the police department two years after the incident. Meduza was informed about this by the Committee Against Torture. 

In October 2019, the police summoned 18-year-old Sergei Moderatov and 22-year-old Sergei Mitin to the department: there they began to be tortured in neighboring offices, demanding to confess to stealing scrap metal. According to the victims, they were beaten, put on a gas mask and blocked the air, and also threatened with weapons. 

As a result, Moderatov spent 11 days in the surgical department of the hospital with a closed head injury. Mitin, who has had mental retardation since childhood, was diagnosed with a phobic anxiety disorder after beating, which he had not previously had. A forensic psychiatric expert later established that his health had been severely injured. 

In 2019, the Investigative Committee twice refused to initiate a criminal case, human rights activists appealed the refusal in court. However, even after that, the investigator “ignored the most important verification measures,” the Committee against Torture said. Human rights defenders had to directly contact the head of the regional IC – only after that, on August 18, 2021, the case was initiated. 

Now the case is being investigated under the article on abuse of power with the use of violence. There are no suspects in it yet. 

(C)MEDUZA 2021