НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРАВОЗАЩИТНОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЕЙ “ЧЕЛОВЕК И ЗАКОН” ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОЙ ПРАВОЗАЩИТНОЙ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ “ЧЕЛОВЕК И ЗАКОН”
the case is completed
10 July 2020
This is a story about a tragic case in the village of Sernur, which shocked Mari El Republic. 15 years ago, three teenagers committed collective suicide after being interrogated in the Sernur district police department. The case was not allowed to proceed, as according to the investigation, the pressure on the children was not exerted, they themselves decided to die. Lawyers of the human rights organization “Man and Law” and the “Committee against torture” defended the right to a fair trial.
Conversations in the police
On 3 March, 2005, three teenagers were taken to the Internal Affairs Department of the Sernur
district. Police officers accused Artem Kislitsin and two of his friends (Vladimir Romanov and
Sergei Bogdanov) in stealing the rabbits and made a questioning. However, contrary to the
requirements of the law, neither relatives, nor teachers, nor other representatives of minors were
present at this interrogation. Later, Artem told his older brother that the Department employees
hit him in the solar plexus, forcing him to confess to the theft, and threatened him.
Artem's house was searched and allegedly stolen rabbits were seized. Meanwhile, the boys were
known for their love of tinkering with rabbits, caring for them, and even studying books on
rabbit breeding.
Two days later, as part of the investigation, the teenagers were formally invited for questioning,
which was scheduled to take place on 9 March, 2005. However, on the night of 9 March, 14-
year-old Artem Kislitsin and Sergei Bogdanov, along with 15-year-old Vladimir Romanov,
committed a collective suicide. They took turns hanging themselves from a clothesline attached
to a ceiling beam in the shed.
Difficult age
A criminal investigation was opened into the death of the children. The investigation concluded
that Artem and his friends made the decision to leave their lives on their own, and there was no
pressure on them. According to the employees of the Sernur district police department, they only
“held a conversation with the detained teenagers, without exerting physical and moral pressure,
and the guys repented during the conversation and showed where they hid the stolen rabbits.”
However, a logical question arose: “What happened in the police department that on the night
before the interrogation the guys decided to take their own lives together?”
Artem's mother, Elvira Kislitsina, appealed to the Prosecutor's office about causing her son
injuries during the first interrogation. The employees themselves did not see any violations and
explained that they “acted in accordance with established practice”.
Officials in their statements focused on the fact that teenagers are often emotionally unstable and
unpredictable in their behavior.
On 30 September, 2005, the criminal case was dismissed.
The verdict of guilty
In 2007, having exhausted the possibilities of legal protection at the national level, Elvira
Kislitsina applied to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of lawyers from the
“Committee against torture” and the organization “Man and Law”.
In 2010, the ECHR communicated the applicant's complaint and at the beginning of the next year
asked the Russian government a number of questions. In response, the state recognized that
Kislitsina and her deceased son’s rights had been violated. These rights are set forth in articles 2,
3, and 13 of the European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental
freedoms (right to life, prohibition of torture, and right to an effective investigation).
In the summer of 2011, Elvira Kislitsina and the Russian authorities signed a settlement agreement, which means that the applicant renounces claims against the government, and the
government in turn admits guilt and undertakes to pay compensation for moral damage. In this
case, 50000 EUR.
Despite the fact that the state recognized the fact of human rights violations, human rights
defenders decided to continue to defend justice, since the local investigative authorities did not
conduct a thorough investigation of the tragedy and did not publicly apologize to the victims.
The perpetrators were never brought to justice and continued to work in the police.
On 22 November, 2011, human rights defenders applied to the Prosecutor of the Sernur district
to reopen the criminal case. Despite the fact that Russia admitted violations and incompleteness
of the criminal investigation, the Prosecutor's office of the Sernur district and the head of the
Sernur inter-district investigation department again began to insist that the minors decided to
commit suicide independently and there are no grounds for investigating the criminal case.
However, on 10 June, 2013, the judge of the Sernur district court granted the complaint of
human rights defenders and recognized that the termination of the criminal case had been illegal.
And the Supreme Court of Mari El Republic ordered the Investigative Committee to resume the
criminal case of the suicide of Artem Kislitsin, Vladimir Romanov and Sergei Bogdanov.
After repeated appeals and reviews in 2014, the investigation of the case was again stopped, but
this time forever. Elvira Kislitsina has lost hope of bringing the perpetrators to justice, because
the system protects itself in every possible way.