A court in the Russian Republic of Daghestan has jailed two police officers for using violence and falsifying evidence in the case of Yulduz Kurashova.

On 10 October, the Khasavyurt Court sentenced Shamil Aliyev and Ramazan Saipulaev, former employees of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Khasavyurt to 3.5 years in prison. Another officer, Maya Akhmedova, received a one-year suspended sentence for assisting them in falsifying evidence.

According to the Crew Against Torture, a Russian rights group, this is the first case in their 20 years of work in which the courts have convicted police officers for torture in the North Caucasus. 

Magomed Alamov, who was representing the victims in court, said they were ‘satisfied’ with the verdict, the Crew Against Torture reports. However, their request to strip those convicted of their ranks was not upheld, they said.

According to the Crew Against Torture, Aliyev and Saipulaev stopped Kurashova’s car in March 2020 as she was travelling with a friend, after which they began to hit her and drag her into their own vehicle.

According to the Kurashova, they continued to beat her in the car and again after arriving at the Khasavyurt police station.

The officers also threatened to take her children from her and to charge her with drug trafficking. Mediazona has reported that they had demanded she hand over ₽500,000 ($7,700). 

She was released the following morning after being forced to sign a confession and a criminal case was opened against her on drug charges later that day. The case was later dismissed due to a lack of evidence a crime occurred.

A forensic medical examination presented in court recorded that Kurashova had suffered a brain injury and numerous bruises.

During the trial, according to Kurashova, Aliyev and Saipulaev threatened her, after which she was granted state protection. In October, she was awarded ₽50,000 ($770) in compensation for illegal criminal prosecution.