In Kansk, a teacher was forcibly forced to confess to the arson of the military enlistment office

An English teacher from the city of Kansk (Krasnoyarsk Territory) was beaten by the police in order to get him to be found guilty of arson at the military enlistment office. “Prospekt mira” writes about this with reference to the mother and lawyers of the arrested person.

The 35-year-old teacher was detained in October 2022 and subsequently sent to a pre-trial detention center. He is accused of damaging a banner announcing contract service, which, according to the investigation, was shot several times by a resident of Kansk from a registered hunting rifle. In addition, the investigation believes that he threatened to kill a neighbor whom he met after the incident with the banner.

The arrested person does not deny that he shot at the banner, he told his mother that he did it because of a bad attitude towards the mobilization.

The mother of the arrested person claims that after the arrest, there were visible bruises on the body, traces of electric shocks, traces of handcuffs, knees were scraped. The arrested teacher also told his mother that he was threatened with rape. At the same time, during the examination, the traumatologist recorded only bruises and abrasions, and did not find any signs of torture.

The arrested person, whose name is not given, claims that they tried to force him to confess to the arson of the military enlistment office in Kansk. It was set on fire on September 24, 2022, a few days after the announcement of mobilization for war in Ukraine – an unknown person threw a bottle of incendiary mixture through the window.

As Sibir.Realii writes, police officers also came to the detainee’s mother and asked her to convince her son to confess to the arson of the military enlistment office. Lawyer Vladimir Ilkov met the arrested person in the Kansk pre-trial detention center and noticed traces of beatings on his face, abrasions on his elbows and bruises from handcuffs on his wrists. According to the lawyer, the client’s ego “will be suppressed and they will still try to prove his guilt in the arson of the military enlistment office.” In a conversation with Ilkov, the arrested person said that he was not involved in the fire.

The defense submitted an application to initiate a criminal case about torture in the police department. The mother of a resident of Kansk says that the FSB officers are looking for witnesses who could identify the detainee on the video of the arson of the military enlistment office. “Now they tell me: ‘You see, in your small town… But who, if not him?’

• After the beginning of the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, there were attempts to set fire to several dozen military enlistment centers and other state institutions in Russia. Almost none of such requests led to large fires, and there were also no deaths or injuries. More than 10 people were sentenced under various articles of the Criminal Code, as a rule, to short terms.
• The General Staff of the Russian Federation announced that cases of arson of military enlistment centers would be considered acts of terrorism and would be punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This entails much more severe punishments.
• On January 31, for the first time in Russia, a court issued a verdict on the article of terrorism for the arson of the military enlistment office. Vladyslav Borysenko, the defendant from the Khanty-Mansiysk District, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.