vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #534 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Three police officers in the Amur region who beat two gold miners when seizing illegal gold from them, recently faced the court trial and received suspended sentences, local prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The policemen Alexei Stepanov, Denis Kornev and Andrei Korostiyenko in July of 2004 arrived to the gold mining site near the settlement of Zolotaya Gora in Zeysky County of the Amur region to find workers engaged in illegal gold mining activities.

First the three policemen went to the first offender and demanded that he hand over the illegal gold. The man identified only as M. in the prosecutor’s press statement, did not obey. The police officers then batoned him and threatened to commit sexual violence against him if he did not turn over the gold. The man handed them a 7-gram piece of gold.

The police officers then went to the second suspect and demanded that he pass them the illegal gold. The man, named as O. in the press statement, agreed to hand in the 14-gram piece of gold. Despite this, the policemen took him out of the house and batoned him.

The court found the three policemen guilty of abuse of power and gave a 3 1/2 year suspended sentence to Korostiyenko, a 3 year suspended sentence to Kornev and 4 year suspended sentence to Stepanov. All three received a two-year probation and were banned from future positions in law enforcement for three years.

The press statements from Amur Prosecutor’s office can be found at www.prokamur.ru (in Russian).