Drozdov, 45, was a father of four and the director of a local technical school. He was taken into custody on February 1 following a bar brawl. A few hours after arriving in jail, a doctor declared that he died of acute pancreatitis. The police later said they had tried to administer first aid, but did not succeed in reviving him.

 

However, when Drozdov’s family went to see his body in the morgue, they noticed bruises on his wrists and his ankles, as well as scratches on his skin. A preliminary investigation concluded that these were not inflicted during his detention, and so the authorities refused to open a criminal investigation.

 

More than eight months after his death, Andrey Suchkov, the family’s lawyer, was finally able to get a copy of the security camera footage from Drozdov’s jail cell. He was shocked by what he saw.

 

 

 

In the video, which was edited for length and distributed by the Kazan Centre for Human Rights, Drozdov at first appears calm as he sits on a bench. A few minutes later, he gets up and appears to converse with policemen outside his cell. Five policemen then enter his cell. He tries to move away from them, but they push him to the ground and hit him. They handcuff his hands, bind his ankles, and tie them to each other in his back. This from of torture is known as the “swallow” position, and is intended to inflict severe pain in the joints. The policemen then leave the cell. At 10 minutes and 30 seconds into the video, a policeman comes back and unties his hands from his ankles. A little later, two more arrive, and untie him completely. At this point, he appears unconscious. A man turns him over on his back to take his pulse, then leaves. His body stays limp. He is later carried out of his cell.

 

After local rights groups released this video, the authorities agreed to re-open their preliminary investigation, but not launch a criminal investigation. According to Russian media, one of the policemen present at the jail on the day of Drozdov’s death hung himself two months later.

 

This scandal comes on the heels of another incident in Kazan that shocked the nation last March: a man died after having been beaten and raped with an object in a local police station. Two policemen have been given prison sentences and nine others are still awaiting trial in this case.

 

Kazan, located about 800 kilometres east of Moscow, is the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. It is often called the "third capital" of Russia, behind Moscow and Saint Petersburg.