The regional units of Russia’s Investigative Committee will check all complaints about police misconduct following a recent police brutality case in the Republic of Tatarstan in the Volga Federal District, the committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Tuesday.
“Taking into account that such cases of the use of violence by police officers against citizens are no longer isolated, the Russian Investigative Committee’s investigative bodies have started local checks of all complaints by citizens,” Markin said.
“Each report of an unlawful act by police officers will be thoroughly checked and objective procedural decisions will be made,” he said.
The Investigative Committee’s decision comes after ex-police officers in the Voronezh Region were charged with abuse of office: they are suspected of beating three people to make them confess to crimes they did not commit.
In another high-profile case in early March, the entire staff of a district police squad in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, was dismissed after a suspect in a minor theft was killed in custody.
Five officers allegedly sodomized Sergei Nazarov, 52, with a champagne bottle. He died on March 10. The officers have been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in his death.
