Russian Woman Marks Her Birthday in Torture Chamber
// Spanish police was accused of torturing an arrested Russian citizen
One of Barcelona’s courts began on Friday proceeding the case concerning the illegal arrest and battery of 23-year-old Russian citizen Elena Podvigina, who lives in Barcelona, by the police. The actions of police officers were recorded by a hidden camera in the police station. Local protectors of human rights say that battery and torturing of detainees are typical for the entire Spanish police.
Elena Podvigina, a 23-year-old Russian citizen living in Barcelona, was humiliated and beaten in one of the city’s police stations by the agents of Mossos d Esquàdra autonomous police. This fact was recorded by covert surveillance devices. The recording shows four policewomen handcuffing the young woman, half-undressing her, beating her on the face with so much strength that she falls onto the floor, where they keep beating her. Then they lifted her up and beat her again.
The recording lasts 3 minutes 52 seconds. It was made on the night of April 4th-5th, when the Russian young woman, who had just celebrated her birthday, was arrested near her home. Yet, it was only this Thursday and Friday that the major Spanish newspapers published the pictures from the recording, by the time of the trial’s beginning.
The victim’s lawyer said that Elena was arrested after she had celebrated her birthday with her friends, was returning home, and entered a wrangle with her neighbors, who called the police. The charges against the young woman are not known yet. The policewomen were suspended from work, and now face the trial. Two of them received charges, and two others are witnesses for the case.
Meanwhile, it is not the first case like that in Barcelona. Several weeks before the battery of Elena, five policemen had cruelly beaten an arrested male immigrant. Human rights experts claim that such incidents happen regularly in Spain, throughout the country, saying that 793 cases of using illegal physical methods were officially fixated in 2004.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 02, 2007
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