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Militia tortures children!

13.04.2004    source: The newspaper «ХХІ vek» An editorial
Militiamen of the Slavianoserbsk district precinct of the Lugansk oblast illegally detained and tortured two minors. Now the boys are staying in a hospital and the law-enforcers are doing their best to dodge the responsibility.

We want to warn you that it should be horrible for a normal person to read this article, although we tried to omit the most cruel and cynical details in order not to aggravate the psychical trauma of the minor victims. And the victims, in the opinion of doctors, will not recover soon from this trauma. Now these children undergo the medical treatment in the neurologic ward of Lugansk hospital No. 4.

Both boys have the closed head injuries, cerebral brain concussion, soft tissue bruises; besides, one of them, Artem, has deep incised wounds on the 1st, 4th and 5th fingers of the right hand and haematoma on the right thigh. The state of the boys is complicated with the acute reaction to the stress, depression, troubled sleep, fear of darkness and men.

So, how it happened that two boys, who live in absolutely normal intelligent families, study foreign languages and computer in one of the most prestigious Lugansk schools, got to the hospital? Who drove them to this state? The answer is obvious: our native militia, namely the militia officers of the Slavianoserbsk district precinct of the Lugansk oblast.

During the winter vacation 13-year-old Bogdan Andreev and 14-year-old Artem Podlegaev were in Slavianoserbsk visiting their grandmother.

On 28 December, about 2 p.m., the boys were walking near local secondary school No. 2. The watchman, uniformed like a militiaman, thought, for some reasons, that these boys had broken a window in the school building. So, he attacked the children and cruelly beat them. The man tried to take away from Artem a trinket (a usual trinket – with file, small knife and bottle-opener) and seriously injured the boy’s fingers. Scared Bogdan called for help, and his first words were: «Call militia, please!»

That day Bogdan learned, for the first time, that militiamen are not always rescuers. The officers detained Bogdan and Artem, brutally forced them into the patrol car and transported the boys to the Slavianoserbsk district precinct.

In the precinct the militiamen did not register the detention of the boys and held them for several hours without any grounds. The law-enforcers ignored the demands of children to inform their parents or grandmother about the detention.

When militiamen left the room for a minute, Bogdan had time to contact with his parents by cell phone and communicated that they stayed in militia precinct and were beaten. «My son phoned me for four times, but the connection was very bad», tells Bogdan’s father Yuri Andreev. «At last I heard: «Daddy, they are beating us. Artem is bleeding. We are in Slavianoserbsk militia precinct!»»

In the course of the so-called «talks» militiamen tried to make the boys to confess to hooliganism and resistance to militia officers during the detention.

Although Artem’s hand was bleeding, the militiamen did not render him medical aid. They took him away, allegedly for interrogation.

Bogdan, beaten and frightened, was put into a cell with other detained – adults with, maybe, shadowy past. In any case, Bogdan does not want to recollect his stay in the cell.

One can only guess what terrible things could happen with the boys, if Bogdan did not manage to phone…

When the parents of Bogdan and Artem entered the precinct, they could not found any militiamen either near the entrance or in the duty-room. The fathers of the boys went along the corridor and opened every door. In one of the rooms they saw a table with bottles and snacks. Militiamen started to celebrate the New Year… «Where are our sons?», asked Yuri Andreev and Gennadiy Podlegaev, but heard in response only curses and threats.

At that moment Bogdan recognized the voice of his father and cried. The fathers released Bogdan and started to look for Artem.

In another room a militiaman was sitting, a gun without holster lay on the table, and Artem in bloodstained clothes trembled in a corner. The officer said that he was interrogating a suspect of hooliganism and showed an explanatory note. The document was unfinished and signed by the militiaman.

Some time later a man in civil clothes came to the district precinct. The man introduced himself as colonel Sabov, the head of the precinct, but did not show any documents. By the demand of the parents he signed the papers needed for medical expertise and promised to conduct the service investigation of the incident (the editorial board has the copies of these documents signed by major V. Alekseev).

The traumatologist-on-duty of Slavianoserbsk district hospital refused to examine the children saying that the visitors of the town were examined only on Tuesdays (and this on Sunday).

In the reception ward of the hospital Artem saw the man, allegedly watchman, who had beaten him near the school and initiated the illegal detention of the boys. The man preferred to disappear.

There are no records in the register of the precinct either about the detention of the minors or about the hooliganism in school No. 2. This means that, according to the militia documents, nothing happened. It is very convenient, is not it? The militiamen created the escape route for themselves, but they could not foresee that one of the boys would have a cell phone, and the parents would immediately come to save their children from the «law-enforcers».

On the next day the parents of Artem and Bogdan complained to the head of the Lugansk oblast militia directorate against the illegal actions of the officers of the Slavianoserbsk district precinct and brutal violation by them of children’s rights.

After the illegal detention, beating, interrogation and the three-hour stay in the precinct, the boys were examined in the traumatology ward of Lugansk town hospital No. 9 and in oblast psychiatric hospital No. 1. The injuries, inflicted during the detention and stay in the district precinct, were confirmed by proper medical documents.

Now the boys need the course of rehabilitation – their psychics is broken after the physical and psychical tortures in militia. The access to the children is restricted even for their relatives. In spite of this, on 6 January 2004 S. Zadorozhchenko, a deputy prosecutor of the Slavianoserbsk district of the Lugansk oblast, tried to get into the ward with the goal to interrogate the victims. Naturally, the parents were not informed about the wish of the deputy prosecutor. The doctor in charge of the case explained to the assertive law-enforcer that it was forbidden to interrogate the boys.

Yet, this was not the end of the afflictions, at least for the parents. After handing the complaint to the head of the oblast militia some persons began to phone with threats and demands to take away the complaint. The parents were informed that the Slavianoserbsk district militia directorate started three criminal cases: on the attack on the school watchman committed by the boys; on resistance during the detention and insulting of militia officers by the boys; on physical resistance to militiamen and arbitrary actions of the parents during the release of their children.

The anonymous proposition was made: the criminal cases would be closed, if the parents would not complain against the officers of the Slavianoserbsk precinct.

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