Chelyabinsk region, 454000, Elkina St., 45

Monitoring group led by N.A. Schur 

On 26 December 2013 monitors Nikolai Alekseevich Schur and Tatyana Mikhailovna Schur visited Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 in Chelyabinsk to verify information received the previous evening that the defendant, Vladimir Valerievich Kotiurin, had been assaulted by Chelyabinsk police escort during his transfer to Chelyabinsk Regional Court on 25 December 2013.

The information was confirmed: Kotiurin had been brutally beaten. There is a video of Kotiurin’s medical examination and there is documentary evidence of the physical injuries sustained by Kotiurin.

Kotiurin is accused of assaulting a police officer. There are very serious doubts that these accusations are based in fact: Kotiurin is a well-known champion of the fight against corruption in the region, and there is every likelihood that the case against Kotiurin has been fabricated.

At present we are very much fear that Kotiurin’s life may be in danger. He has already been beaten up and injured. They are rushing to him to Kunashaksky court under guard.Those taking him there are the very ones who represent a threat to his life.

Those we have informed about the threat to the life of V.V. Kotiurin are: the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Chelyabinsk region, A.M. Sevastianov, the assistant on human rights to the head of the Chelyabinsk region penitentiary service, Dmitry Viktorovich Khromov, and the governor of Chelyabinsk Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1, Nikolai Nikolaevich Stytsenko.

Please find attached to this Press Release, the official notification of the visit to Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 of 26.12.13; the report on the inspection of Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1; and the appeal by V.V. Kotiurin to N.A. Schurr, member of the Public Monitoring Commission.

Director of the Monitoring Group, Nikolai Alekseevich Schur
+7922235 2551

14.50 (Moscow Time) 26 December, 2013

P.S. D.V. Khromov has just reported that Kotiurin had an ECG, and was given appropriate seasonal clothes to replace those which were damaged during his transfer to the regional court.

Kotiurin is currently in transit to the Kunashaksky district court. (15.06, Moscow Time)