In Abkhazia, five police officers of the Gagra district were charged with beating a Russian tourist. This is reported by the human rights project «Axioma».
Security officials with the surnames Bagatelia, Jalagonia, Chitanava, Misheliya and Anshba are accused under the article about abuse of authoritywith the use of violence. The case, which was opened in September 2021, was sent to the Gagra District Court for consideration on the merits.
According to the local prosecutor's office, on April 7, 2021, Bagatelia and his colleagues were patrolling the observation deck near Mount Mamzyshkha and noticed Artem Russkikh, a Petersburger, who had come to Abkhazia on vacation. The tourist was detained, suspected of selling drugs, and brought to the police department. The police officers examined the Russian and released him at about 11 pm, but soon returned to the department.
Then the security forces detained Artyom's wife Daria Morozova and their girlfriend Polina Salmina. The girls were interrogated, their hotel room was searched and taken back to the police department. “My girlfriend was interrogated, frightened with rape. They only frightened me and interrogated me for many hours, offered to hand over my friends, because supposedly they would be imprisoned anyway, ”said Morozova. In the department, the security forces hit the Russians several times on the body and showed a gun «for the purpose of intimidation.» After that, the Petersburger was taken to a wasteland, where he was beaten with a rubber truncheon.
All this time, the policemen wanted to force the Russians to confess to selling drugs. “They put me against the wall, with their hands to the door, and started beating me in the kidneys from behind. This has never happened to me, I started shouting something about a lawyer. There were many blows, at some point I said: “Let me tell everything calmly,” the victim recalled.
The St. Petersburg resident also said that the security forces took him to a mountain river, where they dipped him ice water. As a result, the detainee lied that he had made a bookmark and promised to show the place where he hid the drugs. Not finding the drug, the Russians were again beaten and threatened to plant the substances. The victim said that he was released only at six in the morning of the next day, taken to the border and advised never to return to Abkhazia.
Doctors recorded a fracture of three ribs on the right side of the tourist, an injury to the right kidney, multiple bruises, abrasions and hematomas on the face, head, body, and extremities. Initially, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia denied information about the beating of a tourist, but later the head of the criminal investigation department of the internal affairs department for the Gagra district, Bagatelia, and the district police officer Dzhalagoniya were removed from service.