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Three ex-policemen receive suspended sentences for torturing detained man in Buryartia

They beat the young man, put a gas mask on him cutting off air from time to time, and used electricity as an instrument of torture

ULAN UDE, January 10 (Itar-Tass) – Three former police officers charged with power abuse and the use of violence against the detained have been given suspended sentences in Russia’s republic of Buryatia, a spokesman for the republican department of the Russian Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

According to the spokesman, the three men, former police officers of the Onokhoisky village police department, Chingis Anzanov, Ivan Afanasyev, and Yuri Demidov, received suspended sentences for the term of from three to four years. They have also been banned to take posts in law enforcement agencies for the term of three years.

In May 2010, Anzanov and other criminal police officers went to the Avtodorozhnik holiday village to probe into theft reports. Approaching the village, he met a 20-year-old man who was heading for his home in the village. The police officer tried to force the young man into the car to take him to the police station for interrogation, although there was no evidence that the young man might have been involved in thefts. Another police officer stopped Anzanov and the latter let the young man go.

“Nonetheless, the young man was taken to the police station several weeks later. Anzanov and his colleagues Afanasyev and Demidov tortured the detained young man to force him to confess in thefts. They beat the young man, put a gas mask on him cutting off air from time to time, and used electricity as an instrument of torture. The young man went unconscious several times, and the police officers poured cold water on him to revive him so that he could sign confessionary documents,” the spokesman said.