Deadly Soviet – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The court of Makhachkala arrested three employees of the Soviet district police department of the city. On Saturday night, a detained 35-year-old man died there. The Republican Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has already acknowledged that he received bodily injuries, “which may have caused death.” A Kommersant source in law enforcement agencies claims that the detainee was beaten and tortured for several hours, seeking testimony.

Residents of Dagestan have been actively discussing the death of 35-year-old Kurban Dalgatov for several days – he died after being detained by police. Social networks are sure that the man was tortured. By data publications “Chernovik”, the relatives of the deceased claim that he died as a result of strangulation:

“Electric shocks were delivered to the heart area, after losing consciousness with respiratory failure, followed by cardiac fibrillation (suffocation), he died.”

They are sure that the man was strangled by putting a bag over his head, and also beaten with electric current, informed “Draft”, as a result, the heart could not stand it.

On Saturday, the press service of the republican department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs gave an official comment on the situation. According to the department, on the evening of January 20 in Makhachkala, a conflict broke out on the street between two men. As a result, one shot several times from a traumatic weapon at another. The police officers who arrived at the call came to the conclusion that his acquaintance Kurban Dalgatov helped the shooter to escape. He was taken to the Soviet regional department of Makhachkala.

“During the proceedings, the citizen’s health worsened, he was provided with first medical aid,” the statement says. message the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. — The police decided to take him to a medical facility. Despite the measures taken, the doctors pronounced the man dead. Subsequently, it was established that the deceased suffered bodily injuries, which may have caused the death of the detainee.” The departments of internal security of the republican department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted an inspection and transferred its results to the investigating authorities. “If the guilt of the employees is confirmed, they will be punished in accordance with the procedure established by law, their leaders will be held accountable under the law,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs assured. An hour later, the press service of the Republican Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia informedthat the investigative department for the Soviet district of Makhachkala opened a criminal case under Part 5 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding official powers, negligently resulting in the death of the victim).

A law enforcement source told Kommersant the details of the incident. According to preliminary data from the investigation, Kurban Dalgatov was taken to the police department at 00:47 by employees of the district department (according to data prosecutor’s office, these were three detectives).

In one of the offices, “unidentified officials” used physical violence and torture to obtain information from Dalgatov about the whereabouts of the shooter from the trauma.

Beatings and torture continued until four o’clock in the morning; the result of them was death caused “by negligence.”

On Monday, January 23, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs informedthat the head of the police department of the Soviet district of Makhachkala and his three deputies were suspended from their duties. “Based on the results of an internal audit, a decision will be made on the advisability of these employees staying in the police department,” the report says. These personnel decisions, according to the local Public Monitoring Commission, will not be the last.

On Monday evening, the Sovetsky District Court placed the three detained detectives in custody until March 21, Zarema Mamaeva, head of the press service of the Supreme Court of the Republic, told Kommersant.

Recall, in the fall of 2022, human rights activists from the Team Against Torture (CAT, created instead of the liquidated Committee against Torture, entered in the register of foreign agents) summed up the results of 19 years of their work in the North Caucasus. During this time, the CPT has never been able to punish law enforcement officers of the North Caucasus Federal District for torture or illegal acts of violence. According to human rights activists, in most cases, local investigators simply refuse to initiate such criminal cases or do not bring them to court. At the same time, in other regions of the Russian Federation, the team’s lawyers have achieved more than 150 sentences for similar crimes. Other human rights organizations confirm that cases of punishment of security forces in the North Caucasus are literally isolated.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that the Soviet regional department of Makhachkala has become a place of emergency. As reported by Kommersant, in February last year, two employees of the Russian Guard shot their old enemy from pistols right in the building. Anatoly Shchurov, then head of the investigative department of Dagestan, set the task of completing the investigation in two months. However, the case came to court only at the end of July. The accusation against brother employees was reclassified from “murder committed by a group of persons” to “murder committed in a state of passion” (this article of the Criminal Code provides for a milder punishment). The court released the suspects on bail. And the process itself faced the problem of non-appearance of witnesses. According to the website of the Sovetsky District Court of Makhachkala, Judge Dzhuma Magomedova had to postpone the last five hearings since October for this reason. The next one is scheduled for February 2nd.

Julia Rybina, Makhachkala