Ruslan Zinin, who shot a military commissioner at an enlistment center in Siberia in 2022 amid protests against a mobilization to the war in Ukraine, told a court that he was tortured by police before investigators questioned him.
The Zona solidarnosti (Solidarity Zone) Telegram channel reported on January 17 that Zinin told the court during his testimony that his hands and legs had been cuffed for two days and two nights after his arrest on September 26, 2022, and that he "had to use the bathroom, eat, and sleep with hands and legs cuffed."
According to Zinin, he was psychologically and morally exhausted when the cuffs were finally removed right before an investigator questioned him.
He added that, because of his state of mind at the time, he was not able to give proper answers to the investigator's questions and the investigator "formulated the answers himself."
"Because of those two days and nights [being cuffed], I had to sign the protocol of the questioning, the text of which was crafted by the investigator, although the written text did not correspond to reality," Zinin said, though he has admitted to the shooting. He did not say what parts of the text were fabricated.
Zinin shot military commissioner Aleksandr Yeliseyev at a recruitment center in the city of Ust-Ilimsk as he was recruiting soldiers amid rising tensions over the Kremlin's unpopular mobilization to support the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Yeliseyev was rushed to a hospital in grave condition but survived.
Zinin was initially charged with attempted murder, but in March the charge was changed to "a terrorist attack."
If convicted, Zinin faces up to 20 years in prison.
The mobilization to the war in Ukraine, announced by President Vladimir Putin in September 2022, was met with countrywide protests and the mass flight from Russia of men potentially eligible for military duty.
Thousands of people were detained in Russian towns and cities for protesting against the mobilization, while several military enlistment centers and other administrative buildings in the country have been targeted in arson attacks.
The largest protest against the mobilization took place in Makhachkala, the capital of the North Caucasus region of Daghestan.