Giant letter Z set on fire in Belgorod: detainee claims he was tortured

Ilya Ch., a man from Kaliningrad who was detained after a structure in the shape of the letter Z (a pro-war symbol in Russia) was set on fire in Belgorod, has described being tortured. Source: Novaya Gazeta. Europe, citing the detainee's lawyer, Yevgenia Suslova, who spoke to New Tab

Details: According to the man, 28, on 19 September, he was stopped by five unidentified men in civilian clothes, grabbed by the arms and bundled into a black Mercedes. Without giving any reason for his detention, they put a bag over his head and handcuffed him. All Ilya's personal belongings and the keys to the room where he lived were also taken away, the lawyer said.

Ilya was then taken to an unknown destination.

On the way, he was punched in the face and various other parts of his body and asked whether he had a "handler". Quote from the detainee: "They kept dragging me in and out of the car, using physical force and a taser, which was used to shock me more than 200 times... The handcuffs were so tight that I had bruises.

They put a wooden object under my feet, and one of the men, who was holding an axe, threatened to chop off my legs, but they didn't do it. I realised that it was their way of intimidating me. The men also used a blowtorch, which they held up to my naked back.

In total, I was punched and kicked over 50 times in different parts of my body. At one point, they poured some kind of flammable mixture on my legs and said they were going to set fire to my legs."

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More details: Ilya said the unidentified men also told him what he had to say in his testimony to the police and recorded a video of him on a mobile phone.

The accused was supposed to say on camera and at the police station that he "didn't want to live in Russia and had a negative attitude to the politics and ideology of our state". The video of him was not published, New Tab said. That evening, Ilya was taken to Police Department No.

1 of the Belgorod Department of Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs and held there until his interrogation, which took place on 20 September. Suslova recalls that he could hardly move and had sustained multiple injuries on his face, body, arms and legs. She recorded all of Ilya's injuries on her phone.

A criminal case was opened against the Kaliningrad resident under Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code (illegal acquisition, transfer and storage of explosive devices and explosives). On 23 September, he was due to attend a court hearing for the selection of a pre-trial restriction, but the hearing was postponed at the request of his defence counsel and his detention was extended. On 20 September, the Russian Interior Ministry announced that a 28-year-old resident of Kaliningrad Oblast had been detained on suspicion of setting fire to a Z-shaped installation in Belgorod.

The ministry stated that during a search, objects similar to a grenade and a TNT block had been found in his possession. The man denies that the items belong to him and says he is not guilty of setting fire to the installation. Background: Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov said that a structure in the shape of a letter Z was set on fire in the city of Belgorod on the night of 17-18 September.

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