Rights defenders demand to inquire into torture case of four residents of Southern Russia

The torture case of four Anapa residents has been reopened after repeated examinations, the Committee against Torture (CaT) has reported. The investigation of the case will move from a deadlock only after the transfer thereof to the central machinery of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF), human rights defenders believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Artyom Ponomarchuk, Aram Arustamyan, Karen and Eric Yengoyan, detained in Anapa in December 2015, confessed to robbery. According to their parents, young people are under constant stress and cannot maintain their families. Their relatives have stated that the young people had confessed to a crime that they never committed under severe torture.

As stated by Sergey Romanov, the head of the CaT's Krasnodar branch, in the case of torture of the above residents of Anapa, investigators failed to do all the necessary investigative actions.

The psyche of Aram Arustamyan is seriously disturbed, his father, Samvel Arustamyan, has stated during his picket in Anapa.

Anna Zavgorodnaya, the mother of Artyom Ponomarchuk, told about the torture her son was exposed to. According to her story, they put a gas mask on his head, kicked him, beat his face against the floor, and also passed electric current through his body.