The Valko family considered the security forces' apology to be a formality.

Kuban resident Fyodor Valko intends to appeal the verdict against the security forces who tortured him. The apology sent to him by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was a forced formality; before the verdict, the agency had characterized the convicted officers as exemplary.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on December 30, it became known that the Kuban district police department sent an official apology to Fyodor Valko for the brutal beating by police officers. Human rights activists indicated that the letter of apology was sent only after a request from lawyers.

Fyodor Valko described the recent letter of official apology from the Krasnoarmeysky District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Krasnodar Krai as a formality, his wife, Yulia Shchegoleva, told the "Caucasian Knot."

"We consider this apology a forced formality, since during the initial investigation, these same people gave the best character references to the convicts. Their other former colleagues stated during the initial trial that they heard nothing at all during my husband's torture," she said.

Shchegoleva noted that Valko was not satisfied with the court's verdict – the security officials received 3.5 and 4 years' imprisonment, respectively, although the prosecutor had requested seven years. "This wasn't a simple abuse of power. When we talk about abuse of power, we mean simply an illegal detention. Their actions included cruelty and torture. We will appeal," she emphasized.

According to his wife, Valko's health has never fully recovered, but he is now able to work part-time.

"He left the factory where he worked as a security guard a long time ago by mutual agreement. He now works as a driver. But due to a lumbar spine injury—incidentally, this injury, recorded by the first forensic examination, despite the presence of confirming MRI results, "miraculously" disappeared from the second forensic examination report—he cannot sit for long periods of time, and therefore cannot work at full capacity," she concluded.

Real sentences for police officers in torture cases remain isolated cases, the human rights activist pointed out. He spoke to the "Caucasian Knot" on condition of anonymity. "They were most likely guilty of something else and got caught, and there wasn't any force or official behind them," he suggested.

The sole intention of security forces who use torture is "to force a person to confess to a crime, even if they had nothing to do with it," the human rights activist believes. He is confident that the sentence against the two police officers in the Valko case will not serve as a deterrent for their colleagues.

"This is an isolated incident; in two or three days, a month at most, all this will be forgotten, and no one will even remember it. If the system wants to stop torture, or reduce it to a minimum, such trials should be held almost daily, because torture continues daily here," the human rights activist stated.