Romani Man Beaten to Death in Russian Police Station
07 May 2002
According to the Moscow-based human rights organisation Romano Kher, in the morning hours of August 3, 2001, 40-year-old Mr V.G. Jeryomenko was taken to the police station in Khimki and beaten to death by two police officers after being stopped on the street to show his identity card. Mr Jeryomenko was walking down the street in the town of Khimki, a suburb of Moscow, together with his non-Romani neighbour, Mr D. Kuznetsov, near their homes, when the two men were approached by two police officers, Officer V.K. and Officer D.T., who requested that they produce their identification cards. Mr Jeryomenko and Mr Kuznetsov did not have documents with them, but explained to the officers that they lived only a five-minute walk away and could fetch the documents. According to Romano Kher, they were instead taken to the police station in Khimki, where the two officers reportedly started beating Mr Jeryomenko with truncheons and fists all over his body, while calling him a “Gypsy”. Mr Kuznetsov allegedly witnessed the beating, but reportedly was only beaten lightly several times. On the same day, approximately three hours after his arrival at the police station, Mr Jeryomenko died while still in the police station of what was later determined to be a torn spleen and other grave bodily injuries resulting from being beaten. The police officers allegedly then called an ambulance, which took Mr Jeryomenko’s body to the morgue. According to Romano Kher, Ms Nikolajenko, Mr Jeryomenko’s wife, went to the police station on the afternoon of the same day, seeking an explanation for her husband’s death. She was allegedly offered an implausible explanation of the circumstances of her husband’s death and told that “police officers could not, in any case, be prosecuted for the killing.”
On August 9, 2001, following the funeral of Mr Jeryomenko, Ms Nikolajenko sought assistance from the Moscow-based Romani organisation, Roma Autonomy. On August 10, 2001, Mr Alexandr Molchanov, a defence attorney affiliated with the Roma Autonomy, filed a criminal complaint against two police officers, charging them with the murder of Mr Jeryomenko. According to Romano Kher, in the first days of September 2001, the Khimki police filed a criminal complaint against Mr Kuznetsov, charging him with hooliganism and using firearms, in violation of Article 213 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The charges are apparently false and Mr Kuznetsov denies them. It has also been reported that the police have searched Mr Kuznetsov’s flat and interrogated his mother. Mr Kuznetsov alleged that the police were using such tactics to deter him from testifying against them in the case of Mr Jeryomenko. As of February 1, 2002, Mr Kuznetsov was in hiding. In addition, family members of Mr Jeryomenko have reportedly been detained in connection with alleged drug trafficking, also apparently to dissuade them from pursuing justice in the case of Mr Jeryomenko. According to Roma Autonomy, Mr A.P., the police investigator in the case of the death of Mr Jeryomenko, is protracting the investigation, they believe, in order to assist police officers in avoiding criminal prosecution. Roma Autonomy reports that, as of March 10, 2002, Officers V.K. and D.T. had not been charged in connection with the incident nor had they been suspended from their duties. Ms Nikolajenko, together with her lawyer, has reportedly sent several letters to Mr A.P. and the prosecutor of the town of Khimki appealing for an objective investigation of the case, but as of April 25, 2002, they had not received any response.
(ERRC, Roma Autonomy, Romano Kher)
