Russian Police Essay, Research Paper

Russian police routinely torture or abuse as many as half of their suspects, often using electroshock and asphyxiation techniques, a new study says.

A two-year investigation by Human Rights Watch, an independent New York-based

group, found disturbing evidence that Russian police are torturing suspects

with almost complete impunity while prosecutors are closing their eyes to the

widespread practice.

There is overwhelming evidence that “torture has become an integral part of

police practice,”

The group reached this conclusion after interviewing more than 50 victims in

five regions of Russia. It also interviewed dozens of judges, lawyers,

prosecutors, former police officers, and relatives of the torture victims.

Some experts cited in the report say the use of torture techniques has

increased dramatically in the past 10 years.

“The courts commonly accept forced confessions at face value, and use them as

a basis for convictions,” “Some former police officers said they believe it is impossible to solve crimes without torture.”

The prolonged beating of suspects is the most common form of police torture

in Russia. But police also use several other elaborate torture techniques.

In one technique, a suspect is handcuffed to a chair while a gas mask or

plastic bag is placed over his head and his oxygen supply is cut off. The

technique is known as “the elephant” because the gas mask’s hose resembles an

elephant’s trunk. One detainee in the town of Saransk died as a result of

this torture.

In the electroshock technique, police use a hand-cranked machine that

resembles an old-fashioned field telephone. An electric current is

transmitted by electrodes clamped to the suspect’s ears.

In another position, known as the “envelope,” the detainee is forced to sit

with his head between his bent knees, with his hands tied to his feet. A

suspect in the city of Nizhni Novgorod died after being held in this position

and subjected to sustained beatings, the report says. A forensic examination

found 40 bruises from nightsticks on his body.

In the “swallow” position, the victim’s hands are handcuffed behind him and

attached to an iron pipe, so that he is suspended above the ground, while the

police beat him.

The police also routinely use intense psychological pressure, threats of

violence and threats to the suspect’s family.

They usually refuse to allow suspects to have access to a lawyer. Some of the tortured

suspects are as young as 14 or 15.

In many cases, police put a suspect into the same cell as a

trusted prisoner, who serves as a police enforcer by beating or raping the

suspect in exchange for special privileges.

The investigation found four cases in which a suspect leaped or fell from

police windows, usually to escape torture. One died and two were crippled for

life.

Most torture victims are unable to get access to doctors or forensic experts

to document their injuries. Many doctors, afraid of the police, are reluctant

to examine torture victims. “As a result, medical evidence of torture is

almost always lost”

Even when a suspect is able to present evidence of torture, most courts and

prosecutors ignore this evidence, the report says. Convictions are often

based on coerced testimony, it says, and confessions based on coercion are

rarely excluded from a trial’s evidence.

One of the most shocking cases recounted is that of Sergei Mikhailov, a

26-year-old in northern Russia who was arrested in 1994 and accused of the

murder of a young girl. He said he was beaten for 10 days and threatened with

rape until he signed a confession.

Although he withdrew the confession after he gained access to a lawyer, he

was convicted and sentenced to death. A year later, another man confessed to

the murder.

A special state investigator concluded in 1997 that Mr. Mikhailov was wrongly

convicted, but the state prosecutor has not yet taken steps to overturn the

conviction. Mr. Mikhailov, who spent more than four years in a death-row cell

and has tried to commit suicide several times, is still in prison.

Most Russians appear to be fully aware of the risk of torture or abuse at the

hands of the police. About 60 per cent of crime victims do not report the

crimes.