Kazakhstan: police major is accused of rape

The case of abuse of office by representatives of law enforcement agencies occurred in Pavlodar region. A 22-year-old girl, detained by the police officers, was raped. The victim told about this to the well-known Kazakhstani human rights activist Elena Semenova during a meeting in the pre-trial detention center of Pavlodar.

As Semenova said in an interview with ACCA, the girl was detained on February 17 at about 4 pm. A body search was carried out, and then she was put in the car of the head of the drug control department of the police department of Ekibastuz city.

“At about 6 pm, the officers went home to the detainee and conducted a search. At about 8 pm the detainee was brought to the police station; the investigative actions were carried out until midnight,” says Semenova. “In the first hour of the night, already on February 18, she was taken out of the police department and put in a car where there were 4 officers of the Special rapid response squad, and they went to conduct investigative actions. She was taken for a ride around the city until four in the morning, and all this time the girl was sitting in the car. Then she was again taken to the police department. There were two operatives of the drug control department, the captain of police of Pavlodar region and the senior lieutenant of the police department of Ekibastuz.”

– And why was she detained?

– She is charged with article 297, part 3 of the Criminal Code (illegal production, processing, purchase, storage, transportation for the purpose of selling, sending or selling narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues – ACCA).

– How did the events develop further?

– After four in the morning, they put her in the car again, brought her to an unfamiliar yard and took her to an apartment on the first floor. The officer said that they would spend the night here because everyone was tired, and in the morning they would all go to the police station together. There, the girl saw a police major of the Drug Enforcement Administration of the police department of Pavlodar region, who was in dark shorts and a T-shirt. One of the officers, who brought her, took her into the room, showed her to the sofa and told her to go to bed. A police officer slept on the other bed. She went to bed, but about 5 minutes later the same major came in shorts and a T-shirt and said that he would sleep with her so that she wouldn’t run away. Then, according to her, the major began to touch her body. She resisted, but he said that he would help her. She resisted, and he began to threaten her that the case would be shown on the news, thereby disgracing her family all over the country, and her mother would be fired from her job. Hearing his threats and blackmail, for a moment she fell into a “stupor”, “hung up”, and this was enough for the major in shorts and a T-shirt to take off her underwear and satisfy his desires. She couldn’t resist, because she was exhausted. Almost 13 hours that have passed since the moment of her arrest, she didn’t eat or drink … In the morning, at about 10 o’clock, the officer, who was sleeping on the next bed, woke her up, they went to the police station, where they stayed for about 30 minutes, then she was taken to the cafeteria, fed and brought back to the police station.

The police major, who raped the detainee, asked if everything was fine with her, and at about one o’clock in the afternoon he personally took her home.

– Has she seen this major before? How was she able to identify the major in a man in shorts and a T-shirt?

– I think she only found out later that it was the major. She names everyone by surname: those who drove her, and those who conducted the searches, and those who were in the apartment.

– Is this option possible: the girl was detained for drugs, the police major promised her help for providing intimate services, and then refused to help. And she decided to take revenge on him by reporting rape?

– No, I don’t think so. She wrote a statement against the police the very next day after she was released. And, even if we assume that the major promised her help in return for something, then this is an abuse of office. There were four of them. It turns out that they used their official position for their own satisfaction. And if she wrote a statement after, say, ten days, then one would suspect that she did it in revenge. But she wrote a statement immediately the next day. And how can you talk about mutual sex if there were four police officers in the apartment and one of them was lying on the next bed?

– Is there any movement on this case?

– On February 20, the prosecutor and the own security officer came to her home. All the necessary examinations were carried out. Again, according to her words, they showed the presence of traces of this major. Four months have passed since that moment, during which this case is allegedly being investigated. But until now, all these police officers are at large. They weren’t even detained. The only thing, that the police department said, was that this major was suspended from work. But why wasn’t he detained if there was an expert examination? And then, she was released on the third day after the rape. Why was she released if she was guilty? And then, only 10 days later, after she wrote a statement about the rape, she was again detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center under this article, which she was charged with. She is now in jail.

– Does this girl have any chance of getting punishment for her offenders?

– If there is an examination that absolutely proves that there were traces, it would seem that such questions shouldn’t arise. But, according to the girl herself, everyone thinks that it was by mutual consent.