Alexander Demidenko. Photo: Social media
The family of Alexander Demidenko, a Russian activist who died in police custody in April, have submitted an official request to the police to locate the car Demidenko was driving when he was detained, independent media outlet Pepel reported on Thursday.
Demidenko, who regularly hosted refugees who had been displaced from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine and helped them return home, was detained in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region in October while accompanying an elderly woman to the Kolotilovka border crossing with Ukraine, BBC News Russian reported.
It subsequently transpired that Demidenko was detained and was subsequently beaten and tortured by members of the Akhmat special forces battalion, a paramilitary organisation controlled by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Demidenko’s family said it had received a police report concerning his missing Renault Duster, which said that “servicemen of Chechen nationality … took him and his car to their unit’s location”.
The police report, which was handed over to the military investigation department of the Russian Investigative Committee in the southern Russian city of Voronezh, includes witness accounts that said the Akhmat officers had abducted Demidenko and stolen his car.
According to Pepel, Demidenko’s relatives are still paying back the loan they took out to buy the car, despite having no access to the vehicle. The Investigative Committee has also refused requests made by Demidenko’s relatives for more information about the circumstances of his alleged suicide in prison on 5 April.
