Sergey Vladimirovich Shutov

NAME	Shutov, Sergey Vladimirovich
DOB	01.08.1983
Place of residence	Kazakhstan, Atyrau
Location of Incident	Kazakhstan, Atyrau
Citizenship	Kazakhstan
Applicant	Shutov, Sergey Vladimirovich
Kinship	Self
Citizenship	Kazakhstan

I, Shutov Sergey Vladimirovich, appeal for protection from law enforcement agencies of the city of Atyrau in connection with the following events. On January 11, at about 11-12 o’clock, police officers came to the address of my residence, allegedly for a conversation and to travel to the city [police] department to identify some people from photographs. I asked them to introduce themselves and give me a summons. Instead, they rudely twisted me and dragged me to the Gazelle [police vehicle]. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, no shoes. They put me on the cold and dirty floor of the car and began to beat me, asking for my phone; as it was left at home one of the officers returned to my apartment and demanded that my wife give the phone and my shoes, she gave what was at hand, summer shoes and the phone. While lying on the floor, I was beaten and demanded to open the phone; it was without a password.

After a while, the car stopped, and I was ordered to do whatever the officers said, look into the ground and not raise my head. I saw the asphalt and then the floor of the old gym. I was taken to some table where they forced me to sign unknown documents; perhaps it was a summons. After that, I was placed with my legs spread wide, face to the floor, and ordered not to look around. After a while, they allowed me to look at the wall. Unidentified masked officers approached me with questions about the rally in Atyrau, where I was on January 4. I was tortured and forced to squat, do push-ups, and threatened to be taken to the torture room. In the gym, there were six tables at which police officers worked. In one corner were stacked mats. In the other corner, there was a toilet and a shower room where various detainees were regularly taken away and beaten; I heard the screams of the detainees and the blows.

I was taken to one of the tables, face down to the floor. I was asked questions about when I was in Russia, from whom I received the assignment to participate, and how I organized the rally. I gave honest answers that I was in Russia last year; I went with my wife for an operation in May. I did not lead any organizations and did not receive any assignments. I shot a video from the square, not ordered by anyone, just showing what was happening in the square. I was there from 15.00 to 17.00, after which I bought groceries and went home.

After a while, they took me to this room, face to the floor, hands behind my back, put me against the wall, and began to beat me. The first blow was to the chest, after which I covered my face with my hands and sat down in pain, receiving kicks and punches on the head, back, shoulders, and lower back. I was asked if I would still go to rallies; I screamed in pain and asked to stop.

Then they put my hands behind my back again, face to the floor, and took me to where I was standing in the center of the hall in a stretch. Officers passing by kicked my thighs punched me in the liver and forced me to squat again or return to the beating room. They showed me a photo of an unknown man on a phone and asked me whether it was me or not. I replied that the man was unknown to me, did not look like me, and was dressed completely differently.

After a while, a masked SWAT came up to me again and told me to follow him to the beating room; I said I was already there, and he replied that I needed to go again. Face to the floor, I was brought back there and placed facing the wall and ordered to put my hands behind my head, after which they inflicted several blows on the ribs on both sides and the kidneys; after blows to the hips, I fell and could not get up, I was ordered to go on all fours, face to the floor from the shower across the gym to the center, between the tables with the police officers and again put in the stretch.

While I was trying to recover, I heard the detainees being brought around and beaten at the slightest objection. Masked officers gathered and hurled blows. I was regularly approached by police officers, whom I know by sight after personal meetings since 2016 regarding the land rally, and asked if I would still go to rallies; I answered no. I don’t remember their names, but I recognize them in person. They took no action to prevent or stop bullying. Strobe lights were installed along the wall behind, and looking at the floor or the wall; I could only see shadows. I instinctively tensed up when they were approaching, waiting for the blow. There was no strength to stand facing the floor; I had to rest my head on a battery of thick blue pipe, which burned my head but gave me a little rest. Once I was taken to the 5th floor of the building, it was very difficult to walk; I climbed one step. In one of the offices, I was invited to talk with KNB officers who threatened to open criminal cases against me for participating in rallies in 2016 and 2022. I don’t remember their names, but I would recognize them.

All this lasted from about 12.00 to 18.00 hours, after which an investigator who did not identify himself talked to me and asked me why I came to the rally, who paid me, how I feel about Ablyazov, whether I watch the “Basse” channel and 16-11. After the answers, he gave me a sheet to write an explanation under dictation, where he demanded to write that I actively participated in the rally on January 4 and shot a video for my Facebook page. Then I was put back against the wall. Some more time passed, and I was taken to another table where another employee was sitting; he did not identify himself, he was without a mask, he filled out an administrative protocol on me. I saw one man lying motionless behind in the center, along the wall, on a sports mat for a very long time. I asked what was wrong with him, and I was told he was just drunk. As it turned out, he insulted the officers on the phone on January 10, a day of mourning, and wished for all the bad, after which he was also beaten, and later we were in the same cell of the KPZ of the City Police Department. Nothing was explained to me after filling out the protocol; they showed me where to sign, but they did not give me a copy. They gave me someone else’s hat since I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt; they said it was cold in the KPZ. I was put back against the wall on the right side of the entrance, where two other detainees were standing. We were forced to squat and do push-ups, after which we were taken to the KPZ.

There were 15 other detainees, also beaten in varying degrees of brutality. After a couple of hours, I was able to get warm clothes and boots. It was cold and cramped. They called the ambulance because one of the detainees had spiked a temperature; the other was given painkillers because of a hip injury. We stayed there until 10 a.m. on January 12 and were taken to the 5th floor of the City Department to the administrative court online. About 20 detainees on orders stood facing the walls on both sides of the corridor, then commanded to squat; I could not and was given a chair. The rest were forced to stand and squat or squat on their buttocks only on command. We were taken to talk with prosecutors, who were interested in why I participated in the rally. They gave me to sign explanations on the law in an emergency situation. Why I could barely walk, they weren’t interested. The trial was held until 17.00, and everyone was given different terms of administrative arrest, from 2 to 15 days. The only woman among us who argued with employees at the Dynamo gym and was given a warning while awaiting trial, as she is a mother of young children.

We were warned that at the online trial, we must answer briefly and quickly in order not to return to the gym. The judge asked if I was familiar with the case file; I looked at the police officer next to me, and he nodded to me to say yes. I have not seen the case file. The prosecutor asked for 15 days, showing a photo of an unknown man and claiming that it was me who was committing illegal acts on him; I replied that I was in different clothes and did not look like him at all. The judge separately asked about the wording “actively participated in the rally” from my explanatory note, which I wrote under the dictation of the investigator. I replied that I met friends, we talked, sang the anthem with others in the square, and that was it. The judge gave two days of administrative arrest, of which more than a day passed. No documents or even copies of the administrative offense protocol were issued, although I asked for them. I turned to the police officer, “Everyone has a yellow sheet, but I don’t,” He replied that you do not have and others will not and collected copies from everyone, which I returned to them already in the IVS.

Most of the detainees and convicts were lined up and taken to the temporary holding facilities. We apparently could no longer fit there. So the last seven people after the trial were sent to Khimposelok, a boarding school for children, in which one of the rooms was used to hold convicts. People were lying on mattresses on the floor; about ten people when they brought us. It became painful for me to urinate that night, and the urine became a dark color. The back hurt, buttocks, hips, legs do not bend, hematomas on the head.

According to my calculations, my term was supposed to end at noon, but a paper came from the City Department that I was allegedly detained at 17.00 and at this time, on January 13, I will be released. I asked for at least some documents, but they did not provide me with anything and let me go home, after which I went to the hospital, where I passed the tests, received a certificate of beating, and wrote a statement on the unknown police officers to the officer on duty.

I ask for the attention and protection of Kazakhstani and international human rights organizations to my case and hundreds of others. According to rough estimates, about 400 people have already passed through this Dynamo gym from January 6 to 13. Stop the torture!

Shutov S.V.