MOSCOW, November 22 - RAPSI. The Investigative Committee has abstained from initiating a criminal case on the alleged torture and kidnapping of Russian oppositionist Leonid Razvozzhayev, said the committee's official spokesperson Vladimir Markin.
"We have decided not to initiate a criminal case. The decision is based on the results of assessments of materials collected during the inspection, particularly with regard to the failure of Razvozzhayev to provide the investigators with any documentary or physical evidence of the crimes committed against him," Markin said.
On October 19, Russia's Investigative Committee placed Razvozzhayev on the federal wanted list. He was charged with organizing public unrest together with Left Front movement coordinator Sergei Udaltsov and his aide Konstantin Lebedev. The case against them was initiated after the broadcast of the "Anatomy of Protest 2" documentary film on the NTV broadcasting network.
The film claimed that the opposition was organizing a coup using funds from abroad and showed Udaltsov and his companions allegedly talking with then-head of Georgia's Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee Givi Targamadze, who is said to have been involved in planning the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as mass riots in Belarus.
Initially Razvozzhayev issued a full confession, but later claimed that he had confessed under pressure and had been tortured.