Three law enforcement officers in South Ossetia have been dismissed, with seven others receiving severe reprimands following the beating of two 19-year-old detainees.
Vadim Pliev and Eduard Kokoev were stopped by OMON officers on 12 October as they were on their way to a gaming cafe in the capital Tskhinvali (Tskhinval), their mothers, Natalia Dadiani and Fatima Kumaritova, stated. The two had their documents checked and were threatened with a fine for driving without licence plates.
A few hours later, about 100 metres from their home, they were stopped again. The mothers claimed that officers spoke Pliev and Kokoev in raised voices, after which they struck one of the young men.
Following this, the mothers said, two more police units arrived at the scene, after which Pliev and Kokoev were taken to the local police department. There, relatives say, they were beaten both in the yard and inside the building. The victims reported that around thirty people were involved in the beatings, including senior OMON and police officers, and that they were forced to apologise to the officers, though it is unclear for what.
Afterwards, Pliev and Kokoev were taken to be tested for drug use; no prohibited substances were detected. They were then taken to hospital, where they remained for treatment.
In a statement to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the mothers named nine individuals they claimed had been involved in the beatings, requesting that they be held accountable. They further stressed that if their children were guilty of any wrongdoing, they were prepared to accept responsibility, but that they condemned the violence by law enforcement officers.
Subsequently, on Monday, Erislav Mamiev, the Head of the South Ossetian Interior Ministry, reported that three officers had been dismissed during a meeting between President Alan Gagloev and the heads of security agencies.
Mamiev’s statement noted that Gagloev ‘inquired about the progress of the investigation into the use of force by law enforcement officers against two citizens of the republic’. Previously, official bodies had not commented on the incident.
South Ossetian Prosecutor General Grigory Sobaev added that the preliminary investigation is ongoing, noting that ‘a number of law enforcement officers have already been subjected to disciplinary measures, including dismissal’.
He added that the victims ‘requested a full investigation and the holding of those responsible accountable’, but were now reportedly satisfied with the measures taken and had asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to close the case previously filed regarding the beatings.
Sobaev’s statements suggest that the officers involved could avoid criminal liability.
The fathers of the victims, Valery Kokoev and Hamlet Pliev, are soldiers fighting in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Elizaveta Chukharova
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
