Member of Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kudryavtsev, Deputy Chairman of the Academic Council of the RF Security Council:

From the Press Release on Academic Council session proceedings of March, 31, 1998, at the Administration of the President of the RF:

Documents presented at the session of the Academic Council and speeches delivered by legal experts, criminologists, departments' representatives and human rights activists all point to the fact that constitutional rights of citizens are often rudely violated in the criminal justice system. Not just individuals, but the entire society suffers from these violations, as they undermine the authority of the state, of judicial bodies, Procuracy, militia and FSB (Federal Security Service). People become prejudiced against enforcement agencies, which doesn't make society any safer.

Previously, the issue of security was conventionally considered in terms of external, military or state security only. Presently, we include within the concept of security its economic, social, and criminal aspects, the security of people and that of the individual. Citizens must be protected against two dangers, one of which comes from criminals, and the other emanates from the justice agencies themselves, as they mistreat citizens apprehended in the justice machinery. Russian citizens should be protected from both evils.

Sergey Shimovolos, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society (NNHRS):

Since 1992 the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society has been gathering information on applying torture by law enforcement workers.

Cases of unprovoked and unjustified beatings during arrest were not exceptional. As a rule criminal suspects who after beatings are to be taken under guards become the victims of such beatings. This, in turn, makes it extremely difficult to provide evidence and defend victims of these beatings. In some cases an ambulance delivered a victim to a hospital and medical examination becomes a reason and a ground to file a suitcase.

Vulnerable groups of the population (homeless, unemployed) are practically defenseless against violence of law enforcement workers. Beatings in the course of special militia raids are especially cruel and mass. Information about violence and cruelty in such cases becomes known by chance since representatives of these social groups, as a rule, do not apply for help.

We know, for example, that in 1996 there were cases of using violence during mass arrests of people suspected in drug abuse for forced AIDS testing.

Those detained for the first several hours or days are most often subjected to beatings and torture. Investigators try to use a stress situation «to break» conscience and psychic of the detained and extract confessions or information on the case. Torture is used as most effective and quick means to this end.

The (NNHRS) experience shows that to fire militiamen involved in torture is the most probable and maximum possible sanction. But this can be achieved only with public support. Even cases which had some publicity don't get in court rooms.

For example, we know that in 1996 the Procuracy of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast issued 50 criminal cases on abuse of power and almost all of them were closed.

It is still a problem to investigate and defend in court victims of torture inflicted during preliminary investigation. In accordance with the domestic legislation it is the prerogative of procuracy bodies to issue law suits and investigate such cases.

Even if a law suit is issued the case is either not investigated or facts are concealed. Corporate and departmental interests of law enforcement bodies are of primary importance, if these bodies interfere it is practically impossible to bring the case to court hearings.

Maxim Glikin (Journalist for Obschaya Gazeta)

Practically every week we receive information from various regions about torture and mishandling of citizens. Just yesterday I received information from the region around Moscow that the local police department had used something akin to a «duiba,» i.e. they had hung a man by his tied arms and beat him until he agreed to talk.

I think that widespread torture will not be curbed until public Procuracys begin to listen to and react to reports by human rights advocates. Only a few of the cases of torture by police officers that have been reported to the public Procuracy’s office have been fully investigated, and even fewer cases have been brought to trial. Because of the message that the public Procuracys are sending, police officers are not afraid to use force or torture with suspects. Each police officer acts individually according to his own morals, and, it seems to me, based on the materials I have, that people who become police officers tend to have sadistic tendencies.

Valery Uvarov (representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs)

There is not a problem with torture. Yes, in agencies of internal affairs there is a lot of violence and a lot of crime. We have regulations on personal safety which encompass those crimes. Workers commit crimes, and they are punished according to those regulations. The question that you have raised today at this round table is a new one for us. I received a large amount of information of activities within the internal affairs ministry from the organizers of this conference. I agree with deputy Lopatin that the leadership of the MIA has not been opened to the idea of fighting crimes within its own ranks, and that it has been a good thing that human rights groups have brought this issue to the foreground. I myself have worked as an investigator and I know that these problems exist.

 

Diederik Lohman (Director of the Moscow branch of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki)

In October we gathered reports from victims of torture from various regions in Russia. When we discussed the collection of our material with the public prosecutor of Nizhni Novgorod, he told us that the police have beaten, are beating, and will continue beating people. The public prosecutor claimed that he could not do anything about it, because even if the crimes were to be seriously investigated in accordance with the all the provisions and guidelines, still no court would accept the case. In other words, he stated that without personally experiencing torture, researchers, in most cases wouldn’t be able to gather evidence.

I think that right now the most important thing is to train human rights workers so that they know the rights of the victims, the rights of arrested individuals, and the rights of suspects so that they can work to support them and their families. Human rights activists must be able to correctly formulate the testimony of a victim and produce a well written statement of the account, so that the public prosecutor might be more inclined to take the case seriously. This is a realistic goal.

Special training sessions and seminars need to be organized so that people, not only in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod, but so that legal defense workers and human right activists in other regions as well know that torture can be fought.»

 

Victor Kamuishanskii (Assistant director of the investigative Department of the Procuracy General Office):

I disagree with the judgment of the participants of this discussion who have maintained that the police does not operate under the supervision of the Public Procuracy. But the question that you have asked is completely on target. The public needs to be made aware of the problems of violence by these agencies. If police officers admit that as a part of some sort of operative plan they have been beating people, then that is without a doubt criminal. All incidences of criminal activity by police structures are investigated by our bureau. We work to eliminate these problems. We are not connected with the police, we are a completely different organization, we have no interest in keeping these issues covered up. As a matter of fact to prove the use of abusive force or illegal activities within these structures is extremely difficult. First of all, most of the time these crimes occur without any witnesses. Secondly, it is easy for law enforcement officers to cover up instances of violence. Thirdly, victims of such abuses usually don’t come to us immediately, making the investigation difficult.

From remarks by Lyudmila Alekseeva (Chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group):

For the prevention of torture it is necessary to have public control. The only chance to create a system that will lower corruption and other abuses of power, is the opportunity to create a legal defense structure that is open. Right now there are needs to have a dialog between human rights workers and legal defense workers so that everyone can sit together and listen to each another in order to extend contacts, either through round table discussions, seminars, or conferences. Law enforcement officers believe that they shouldn’t be controlled by anyone outside the governmental system.

In 1997 the group «Common Cause» took an initiative to the president to remove the Minister of Internal Affairs, Kulikov, from office. Many believe that removing one person from his position will not change anything. But there is a possibility of a domino effect: if Kulikov leaves, all of those he has been shielding will leave as well. During the period of the US occupation of Japan, the entire staff of the public defender’s office was changed three times as corruption was uncovered.

 

Arkady Pastushkov (lieutenant colonel — Central Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.):

One of the reasons for the illegal forms of treatment stems from the existence of «plans» to prosecute a certain number of criminals within a given period. If an investigator needs to complete 2 cases in this month in order to complete a plan, but he is unable to find the person who actually committed the crime, he needs to get a fabricated evidence from a few witnesses in order to make the case against the innocent suspect stand up. Often, youths become the witnesses for these accounts, making them often the victims of these types of crimes. Some juvenile is arrested on some little charge, and if he refuses to sign witness testimony, then it can be made to look like that kid committed the crime he was made to give evidence about, or any other crime that needs to be urgently solved. This is a dangerous situation —the police is not controlled by the public prosecutorand there has yet to be an investigation into these cases.

 

From remarks by the Deputy of the State Duma Vladimir Lopatin, member of State Duma Committee on Security:

After the State Duma ratified the European Convention the legal situation changed somewhat. Today a person can take his case either to the Russian courts or to the European courts to defend his rights. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Russian citizens are not aware of their rights. I am often asked, as a representative, to give legal advice, notarize documents, etc. Most people are simply helpless when it comes to matters of the law. Today even specialists have trouble keeping up with the legal system. The government needs to create a program to provide legal consulting to people at large.

In the third set of proposals from the President it was stated that it is necessary to create a form of public control over governmental agencies — and that this is a strategic goal to be met before 2000. It is necessary to develop this government al program, starting by pushing the government to work for society in the formulation of a mechanism for control over power. The President has made an assignment, but the cabinet will need to see it through.

Sergey Pashin, Honoured Lawyer of Russia, Judge of the Moscow City Court:

During court proceedings, I hear claims that torture has been used against four defendants out of five. In any three cases out of five, we note that torture was used after a person had been detained and before his detention was officially documented. This interval can last from twelve hours to two days. When judges appeal to the Procuracy for a Procurator's examination of a case, such examination is limited to interrogating and demanding written accounts from the very people suspected in conducting torture.

There are two ways to eliminate torture. It can either be made inconvenient, or useless. To make it inconvenient, one may implement at least four ideas which I would like to propose:

1. Enforcement officials who actually detain a person should hand him a note specifying his rights.

2. Militia staff should record everything that took place at the moment of detention and immediately afterwards in their notebooks. It occurs relatively often in court proceedings that a claim of torture is made a year or a year-and-a-half later than it had actually been used. The claim is made at a time when the victim no longer fears for his life. Militia staff convened by court says: «A year-and-a-half have passed. You can't remember everybody. This was our 128th detention. Naturally, we don't remember anything.» The record in the notebook will not allow them to excuse themselves by oblivion.

3. Duty counsel should be attached to any militia department. Each of them should have a pager to be called as soon as a detainee appears in the department. I want to draw your attention to the fact that since novels were introduced into legislation last year, not only a lawyer, but any person, even one having no law education, can act as a counsel in a criminal case if he represents, for example, a human rights organization.

4. Public supervision over enforcement agencies. Such supervision doesn't contradict effective legislation, so one doesn't need a special permission for such supervision. These are just supplementary instruments that should be elaborated and passed.

As to making torture meaningless, torture is used to improve statistics on solved criminal cases. In regard to evidence or open-hearted confessions received between actual and documented detention, or evidence which later is claimed to have been extorted, such evidence should not constitute the basis for a verdict of «guilty». Alternatively, the burden of proving there has been no torture may be put upon the prosecution. If a person claims that he has been tortured, it is the Procurator's job to prove that there has been no torture.

From the report by Valery Abramkin, MCPR director:

The most important suggestion concerning torture prevention is to change the purpose of criminal policy. We must move from confronting crime to protecting people from criminal offences and from exceeding power, which includes torture. As long as the efforts of law protection and law enforcement agencies are centered around the offender, and not around the victims of crime, we cannot expect a change for the better.

Moreover, we must provide tools to make militia and public security services liable to the people. Opinion polls show that people are afraid of militia. Of those interviewed in Moscow streets, 30 per cent said that they feared militiamen, 20 percent admitted to fear of dogs and 5 percent, to fear of hooligans. I don't fancy militia remaining in the eyes of society as a watchdog that has broken its chain and rushes about in the streets, snarling, biting and tearing passers-by to pieces. Militia must be kept «on a short lead», it must be answerable to people.

Yakov Pister, Head of Department at the Procuracy General of Russia:

Lately, the Procuracy has been extremely alarmed by lawlessness in Internal Affairs agencies. In 1997, a special department was established to supervise the observance of the law in the course of criminal investigation by Internal Affairs agencies.

Over the last year in Russia, procurators have filed a total of 27,000 statements concerning violation of the law by Internal Affairs agencies. These led to disciplinary sanctions against roughly 18,000 officials. 853 militia officials have been prosecuted for exceeding commission.

The main question is, however: why does this happen? The answer is clear: the militia, just like the society, is suffering from crisis and lack of qualified staff. Around one half of MVD investigators have no law education. Around half of those working as detectives have not been trained to do it. There is the spirit of contempt for law, for the individual. It is handed over from generation to generation and is responsible for today's offensive, intolerable situation.

 

Andrei Babushkin, Chairman of Civil Rights Committee, the Chamber member:

I believe the widespread use of torture is, in the first place, the fault of Procuracy agencies, which practically give cover to organizing and inflicting torture. Procuracy agencies supposed to supervise Home Affairs officials have become a body that prevents proper investigation of torture cases. Since last year, I have taken part in 42 court cases whose defendants asserted that they had been subjected to torture. They named the perpetrators and the place where they were tortured. They could say in which safe the electric shock rod lay, and in which desk, the gas mask that had been pulled over their heads. They named direct and indirect witnesses, doctors. They presented medical documents. In all the 42 cases, court was adjourned for inspection by the Procurator.

Three days later, all we got were the 10 lines of the Procurator's resolution with refusal to bring an action.

Karina Moskalenko, MCPR expert, Director of the Center of Assistance to international Protection, the Chamber member:

My clients Yelena and Irina Smirnova have been cruelly beaten by militia officers. Militia broke into the apartment of the two helpless women. The sisters were then kept for over 24 hours in cold premises at the militia station, which lead to pneumonia. The Smirnova sisters and their lawyer have repeatedly appealed to Procuracy agencies. They received three refusals to bring a case against militia officers.

The Procurator of Moscow, Gerasimov, has considered the matter of militia beating the Smirnova sisters in person.

I shall read aloud his reply exactly as it is: «Bodily harm was inflicted to the Smirnova in accordance with the investigator's enactment to locate them and deliver them to the militia station.» In other words, the girls were beaten in accordance with the investigator's enactment. We talk of law culture, but how can we expect it of anyone, if a Procurator of very high rank gives answers like that.

As to the militia officials that beat the Smirnova, they haven't even realized their responsibility for this serious crime, they haven't been punished in any way.

In this country, there is practically no way we can protect ourselves from actions like that. We cannot compensate for the abuse of our rights, not even by prosecuting the perpetrators.

Now in New York, a session of the UNO Human Rights Committee is considering the Smirnova case. As it is, the UNO is considering this obnoxious case, but we have still got no answer in our country.

 

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