News

The fifth department (based in the city of Novosibirsk) of the Investigative Committee’s Head Office continues the investigation into the death of a 17-year-old resident of Buryatia and exceeding of powers by a number of police officers.

Operative police agent Sergei Plotnikov, head of property crime and dealing pots office of the Ulan-Ude Police Department Andrei Pavlov, head of the property crime office of Ulan-Ude police office No 1 Anatoly Oloktonov, senior operative agent Valentin Smolin and junior operative agent of Ulan-Ude Police Department Zhargal Zamyanov have been held during a preliminary investigation. Depending on the role of each one they are charged with exceeding of powers using violence and entailing grave consequences under part 3, items “a”, “b” and “c” of Article 286 of the RF Penal Code.

By now investigators has established that another police officer – senior operative agent of Ulan-Ude police office No 1 Tumen Namibadrayev was also involved. They have charged him with the same crime.

Based on the evidence available at the moment the investigators believe that on the evening of 8 June 2016, police officers Plotnikov, Pabrlov, Oloktonov, Smolin, Zamyanov, Manibadrayev and two OMON (special force team) agents detained a teenager and his 18-year-old friend in a shop in Darwin Street in Ulan-Ude on suspicion of stealing bikes. Plotnikov kicked the teenager in the back at least twice, while Pavlov hit him on the legs. The same day the two detainees were delivered in two vehicles to the Crime Detection Office of the Buryatia Ministry of the Interior. To get confessions in unsolved pecuniary crimes Pavlov, Oloktonov, Manibadrayev and Smolin took the 18-year-old in a basement, handcuffed and started beating him with a polypropylene tube. Then, they wrapped him in a blanket, taped him to a bench and sat on him. They used a gas mask to make him suffocate.

After that Pavlov, Oloktonov and Plotnikov took the younger teenager to the same basement. Pavlov hit him at least 20 times on different body parts, put a gas mask on him and started squeezing the vacuum hose to suffocate the victim. This triggered a gag reflex and because the hose was squeezed the vomit had no exit.

On 9 June 2016, policemen brought to an emergency room of the Semashko Hospital the body of the teenager. According to doctors, the teenager died of choking on his own vomit.

A court has ruled to take all of the accused in custody pending trial. By now Pavlov has been dismissed. The investigators keep on gathering evidence necessary to give an all-round and impartial legal assessment to the actions and omission of all the involved in the death of the teenager and infliction of bodily harm to another one. Forensic examinations are ongoing. When they are finished the investigators are going to press final charges and hand over the materials to the injured parties and the accused to read.