A 36-year-old man from North Caucasus region of North Ossetia has died while in police custody in Russia's northwestern Leningrad region.
Karina Khinchagova told RFE/RL on November 12 that her brother Timur Khinchagov died last month after he was interrogated by police in the town of Bor.
Khinchagova says her brother was taken away by law enforcement officers on October 23 after supermarket security personnel called police following a loud argument between Khinchagov and his common-law wife.
The next day, Khinchagova said her brother was taken to a hospital in the town of Pikalyovo.
A doctor at the hospital told Khinchagov's relatives that Timur Khinchagov was in serious condition with brain injuries that appeared to have occurred within the previous 24 hours. He died days later.
"Police rejected the physician's words, saying that my brother hit the police station's walls with his head several times himself and that they have video to prove that, but they refused to show us the video, saying that investigations are under way," Khinchagova said.
The Investigative Committee's directorate in the Leningrad region was not available for immediate comment.
Khinchagova said that Arsen Fadzayev, a member of the Russian parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, had promised to raise the death of her brother with Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
Police brutality in Russia has been endemic for decades. The issue has been the focus of many human rights groups for years.
