YEKATERINBURG, September 25. /TASS/. A court in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Friday sanctioned the arrest of five local police officers charged with torture.

According to investigators, Alexander Dubrovin, Andrey Makhayev, Eduard Udartsev, Abai Mamamnov and Anatoly Kurilenko beat and strangled three murder suspects during interrogations at their police station.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the tortured suspects had been later found not guilty of murder.

Police are also searching the sixth defendant, Yevgeny Vlasov, currently on vacation.

The police officers are facing up to ten years in jail if convicted.