Investigative Committee named the people Azat Miftakhov accused of torture in the penal colony, but refused to open a case...

Forwarded From The Insider

The Investigative Committee named the people Azat Miftakhov accused of torturing him in the colony, but refused to open a criminal case. The materials mention operatives and the colony’s “chief rooster”

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In a ruling reviewed by The Insider, the Investigative Committee for the first time disclosed the identities of two more people whom political prisoner Miftakhov said took part in torturing him in the Harp penal colony: operative Yevgeny Tarayev and the colony’s “chief rooster” Mikhail Byatets. Tarayev took part in torturing Miftakhov with electric current, while convicted prisoner Byatets threatened the political prisoner with rape and with dunking him into a hatch filled with sewage.

The Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal case against IK-18 staff members Mikhail Sobolev, Pavel Kiselyov, and Yevgeny Tarayev, as well as convicted prisoners Aleksandr Bulanov and Mikhail Byatets. They were checked under articles covering abuse of office and violent acts of a sexual nature. Investigator Ilshat Cheremshantsev issued the ruling on the final day of the maximum 30-day period for reviewing the crime report.

“In view of irreconcilable contradictions in the explanations of these persons, the absence of other eyewitnesses, the absence of bodily injuries on A.F. Miftakhov, the absence of objects with which bodily injuries were inflicted on A.F. Miftakhov, and the absence of any other evidence, it is not possible to determine whether unlawful actions were committed against A.F. Miftakhov,”

investigator Cheremshantsev wrote in the ruling.

At the same time, the ruling made it possible to establish the identities of two more people whom Miftakhov said participated in the torture: operative Yevgeny and prisoner Mikhail. Earlier, The Insider identified IK-18 staff members Mikhail Sobolev and Pavel Kiselyov.

Miftakhov could not give the surname of the operative named Yevgeny; in the Investigative Committee ruling his testimony includes a patronymic: “Yevgeny Adzhayevich.” The investigation questioned IK-18 senior operative officer Yevgeny Adzhayevich Tarayev. He confirmed that on April 21 and 22 he spoke with Miftakhov in the office of the operational department on the second floor of the administrative building, where the political prisoner had been carried after the first series of torture. However, Tarayev stated that he did not torture Miftakhov.

Miftakhov named the first name of the second prisoner who participated in the torture together with Bulanov: Mikhail. The political prisoner did not know his surname, but said that this convict had low status in the prison hierarchy and was the senior among prisoners in that category, the so-called “chief rooster.” Although Miftakhov gave only a first name, the Investigative Committee examined the possible involvement in the torture of a specific prisoner, Mikhail Byatets. On what basis the investigator concluded that this was that very prisoner is not explained in the ruling. Byatets stated that he was not acquainted with Miftakhov.

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The Investigative Committee named the identities of the Harp operative officers and “chief rooster” whom political prisoner Miftakhov accused of torture, but refused to open a case

The Investigative Committee refused to open a criminal case over the torture of political prisoner anarchist and mathematician Azat Miftakhov in IK-18 “Polar Owl” in…