MOSCOW, May 18 (RAPSI) – Former police officers of the Nizhnekamsk regional Interior Ministry directorate in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan have been sentenced to prison terms up to 11 years on charges of torturing detainees, rights activists from Zona Prava (Law Zone) inform RAPSI on Monday.

Ex-policeman Rinat Akhmetshin has been sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony; other defendants in the case have been sentenced as follows: Gadel Rakhimov – to 11 years in a maximum security penal colony; Igor Filimonov – to 7 years and 3 months in a maximum security penal colony; Mikhail Logachev – 8 years in a penal colony; Nail Mindubayev – to 6 years and 3 months in a maximum security penal colony, according to the NGO representatives.

Ex-policemen, depending on their role were found guilty of abuse of office with use of violence, special equipment, causing grave harm to health, and conspiracy by a group of people to drive a person to suicide by threats, cruel treatment and systematic humiliation of human dignity.

The sixth defendant Ilnar Garipov is evading investigators and has been put on a wanted list.

As established in the framework of the probe and in the course of court hearings, in 2017, Rakhimov, Filinov and Mindubayev seeking to improve their crime solving statistics, tortured Ilnaz Pirkin into admitting guilt of 47 thefts that he was innocent of. In the end, cruel treatment drove Pirkin to suicide. The victim has recorded his last word incriminating police on a mobile phone.

Also, Akhmetshin and Logachev using threats forced two other victims in the case, Vladimir Timofeyev and Nikolay Udiryakov to admit guilt for Pirkin’s death.

In November 2016, Akhmetshin, Logachev and Garipov forced detainee Ildar Kamaleyev to admit crimes he did not commit. Law enforcement officers hit the victim 20 times in various body parts including head and kidneys.