Draft: not yet checked by a lawyerThe guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.
Draft What human rights defenders advise
Beaten or tortured by security forces
Now: if you are detained, demand an ambulance: under Interior Ministry instructions the duty officer must call one (order 389, para 16). Note the time, place, officers' descriptions and names, how and with what you were beaten, and any witnesses.
Within 24 hours: have your injuries recorded at an emergency clinic or hospital and check each one is described in detail, for example '6×4 cm bruise on the left thigh'. Most reliable: a forensic medical examination. It is free when the police or an investigator orders it; if you go to the bureau on your own, you pay. Photograph the marks for several days.
Human rights groups advise filing the crime report in person with the Investigative Committee, not the police, and asking for the registration receipt. Sometimes a complaint is met with a counter-case (art. 318 CC, or false accusation under art. 306 CC). File the report after talking to a lawyer.
Next: a refusal to open a case can be appealed in court or to senior Investigative Committee officials. Rights groups also mention a compensation claim against the Interior Ministry; according to them, you don't need the officers' names for it if your medical records show the injuries appeared after contact with the police. Complaints to the UN committees (against torture, on human rights) take a long time to prepare, so keep documents from day one. The ECHR is almost no longer an option against Russia: on 3 September 2026 it struck out all remaining complaints not related to the war.
Where to turn: Committee Against Torture team, Public Verdict, First Department. Psychological support: First Line, Nora.
In pre-trial detention a complaint of injury leads to a report in three copies, one handed to you against signature (Justice Ministry order 285, para 14). By law you or your lawyer can ask for an examination by doctors from another hospital; a refusal can be appealed to the prosecutor or a court (Law 103-FZ, art. 24).
An emergency clinic passes your name, address and the likely cause of injury to the police within a day (order 664n). Victims have then been summoned to the very station where they were beaten (Mediazona, 2022). Decide with a lawyer whether to answer such a summons.
Human rights groups advise checking the doctor's record before you leave. Copies of medical records are issued on written request, usually within 30 days (Law 323-FZ, art. 22; order 789n).
The effects are not only physical: fear, sleeplessness, flashbacks. A report from a psychologist or psychiatrist with the date and the specialist's name and qualifications is evidence too. The Committee Against Torture Foundation helps for free: a psychologist, medicines, tests, documents for court (@bfkpp_help).
Free help for people who suffered torture or ill-treatment by police, prison staff, the National Guard and other officials: a psychologist and a support group, payment for medicines and tests, documents for court, lawyers.
A charitable foundation registered in 2019. Its website says it is not a 'foreign agent'. It helps people at liberty and in custody, their families and witnesses. You can write briefly and anonymously, without your real name.
The only official contact is @bfkpp_help; the foundation's website links to it.