Often conflicts of various kinds - domestic, professional, family, and others end in banal assault. However, the bodily integrity of any person is protected by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and the beating may be qualified as a criminally punishable and socially dangerous act. In connection with this, you need to thoroughly understand how to prove the beating, bring the offender to justice , protect yourself and defend your constitutional rights.
Criminal offense - “beatings”
Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation defines as criminal two types of deliberate actions of the offender:
- beatings - that is, inflicting more than two blows on the victim;
- other violent acts, which may include a single blow, pulling out hair, light burns, tweaking, scratching, pricking, pressure, etc.
Prerequisite: the victim experiences physical pain, but significant
s health problems did not happen. If the victim sustained injuries that could be specified as minor, moderate, or serious harm to health, the offense is subject to more serious criminal law provisions.
How to prove the beating: criminal procedural features
A number of questions arise related to how to initiate criminal prosecution under this article, how to collect facts and, ultimately, how to prove the beatings in connection with the special criminal procedural status of this crime.
Police officers - interrogating officers - initiate and investigate criminal cases of beatings in the following circumstances:
- If the crime is committed for hooligan, political, ideological, racial, national or religious reasons.
- If the person who committed the crime is unknown or the victim, due to some circumstances, cannot assert his rights on his own, including by virtue of a dependent position in relation to the beater.
All other beatings relate to private prosecution cases, that is:
- Police officers conduct only an initial verification of the application and collects verification material.
- Criminal proceedings are instituted under Art. 116 of the Criminal Code of the Justice of the Peace, and only at the request of the victim.
- At any stage of the verification and investigation, the criminal case may be terminated, as the parties have reconciled.
- The burden of proving the guilt of the defendant rests with the applicant.
Precisely because the presumption of innocence protects the accused, and the victim must independently figure out how to fix the beatings and prove their infliction, the battered person must definitely take certain steps.
Algorithm of action of the injured by beatings
It is fundamentally important to carry out all the necessary steps at the initial stage, collect documents and record information, otherwise in the future they may be lost, and, after a while, the victim will have a problem: what to do now and how to prove it? Beating is often characterized by visible bodily harm and is accompanied by pain.
Step One and Main: Medical Examination
First of all, you need to know how to remove and prove the beatings. Call an ambulance if you feel worse, or visit the nearest hospital yourself or, in extreme cases, an emergency room. Make sure that the doctors carefully examine and describe in detail all the injuries in the documents, and if they are absent, the place and area of pain, where the blows and injuries occurred, correctly reflected explanations about the origin of the beatings.
In the event that as a result of the beatings I had to be treated and go to the hospital, it is necessary again to check that the medical documents have recorded the injuries and the health consequences arising from them. Later, all these medical certificates and documents from all institutions where any medical care was received, will need to be attached to the case materials as objective evidence.
Step Two and Mandatory: Police Report
Immediately after the conflict, call the police at the scene. Law enforcement officers will properly and professionally complete the initial audit materials and, if necessary, can become eyewitnesses to the events.
Since you can prove the beatings only by collecting more evidence and evidence, you need to maximize the use of the resources and capabilities of the police:
- A call to "102" is recorded and recorded automatically, the time of the offense, the state of the caller at that time will be confirmed. And these materials can be attached to the case.
- The called district or investigative-operational group will make a written survey of the eyewitnesses you indicated, reflect their coordinates for further communication in the verification materials.
- Demand that a protocol be drawn up for examining the scene of the incident with your participation, photographing the situation and the signs of the fight, and seizing the instrument of the offense and the clothes in which the victim and attacker were and on which there may be traces of their mutual contact. Often, law enforcement officers do not like to draw up this document, but if there were no witnesses during the beating, this will be one of the objective and qualitative evidence.
- Be sure to get a referral from a police officer for a forensic examination and go to a specialist examination as soon as possible. They will establish the severity of the harm caused to health, analyze the possibility of causing bodily harm in the circumstances described by the victim.
- Give a detailed explanation in which, as accurately as possible, indicate all the violent acts committed by the attacker and list all possible witnesses to the conflict.
- Compose and submit the application to the head of the police unit and receive a notification coupon, which will indicate the registration number of the application. By this number you can find out about the further course of the check. The decision on the appeal must be made by the police within three or ten days.
- If law enforcement authorities for some reason do not perform the necessary investigative steps to prove - write the petition for the execution of these actions in the minutes, a statement or separate complaints to the head of the police and the prosecutor's office.
Step three: getting ready for trial
Witness's testimonies. Remember all the possible witnesses to the beating and write down their contact details. With the permission of these persons, you can record on the video their explanations about the events.
Characteristic data. Collect as much information and documents as possible describing the identity of the injured and the attacker, which will avoid possible unfounded slanderous accusations.
Application to the magistrates court. Inspection material collected by police officers can be sent to a magistrate’s court so that criminal proceedings can be instituted, only
together with the statement of the victim, which should be written according to the established model.
Compensation for harm. The victim may file a claim for damages in which all calculations must be documented. The court will consider it during the hearing. In addition, legal costs for lawyers and independent examinations also fall on the shoulders of the loser.
Beating without witnesses
In the case when there were no eyewitnesses to the conflict, it becomes a problem how to prove the beatings. What should be done in this situation:
- If bodily harm has been caused, they should be recorded as already described. If the location of the injuries coincides with the places of striking indicated in the testimony of the victim, this will be an objective confirmation of the fact of the beatings, which the court will take into account if there are significant contradictions in the testimony of the victim and the accused.
- If there is no evidence of violence confirmed by doctors, you must insist on the seizure of the victim’s clothes during the inspection of the incident and the protocol by police officers, on which may be left traces of the attacker’s traces, his hair. Also, the victim’s skin should be preserved on the attacker's clothing. All this will help establish the examination, which will appoint a justice of the peace.
- It should be remembered as much as possible all those who saw the victim before the conflict itself and immediately after it. They will be able to describe the condition of the beaten person, confirm the time and place of the crime, indicate the people who were with him before the incident, as well as after it.
- The fact of beating by the behavior of the victim after the incident is indirectly confirmed - a shock state, panic, inadequate reactions. This can be confirmed by persons who saw him immediately after the incident.
It is possible to prove the beatings even if there are no real eyewitnesses, it is only necessary for the injured party to be ready to fight, to defend their rights and to be as attentive as possible to all stages of collecting evidence.