Resident of Sochi claims beating by law enforcers

Policemen have beaten up Konstantin Beltyukov, a resident of Sochi, after he asked them to produce their IDs in response to their demand to give them his documents for examination.

Konstantin Beltyukov, 24, and his girlfriend were stopped on March 30 by two policemen to check documents. The young people assert that the policemen did not introduce themselves. The policemen asked them to get into the car to go to the police station. The young man again asked them to show their IDs, but again, according to his version they refused to do it. Then, he refused to go to the station and got out of the car.

"The policemen started swearing, insisting that I should believe them anyway. Then, one of them started pushing me, and the other hit me in the nose with his fist, and I bled," says Beltyukov, according to the website of the "Team against Torture" (TaT)*.

Konstantin also claims that the policemen knocked him to the ground, and only then did one of them show his service ID. He and his girl were taken to the police station for several hours without explaining the reasons for the detention.

According to the detainee, under the threat of arrest he was forced to sign a protocol stating that he had used bad language, and his girlfriend was in a state of intoxication in a public place. The young people assert that this is not true.

Later, a psychotherapist diagnosed the young man with post-traumatic stress and prescribed a course of treatment.

Beltyukov claims that when he turned to the Investigating Committee with a complaint against the policemen, he began receiving threats.