Space News
space history and artifacts articles

Messages
space history discussion forums

Sightings
worldwide astronaut appearances

Resources
selected space history documents

  collectSPACE: Messages
  Space Explorers & Workers
  Cosmonaut Tolboyev beat up by police

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Cosmonaut Tolboyev beat up by police
Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-10-2004 07:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Posted by Dwayne Day to the FPSPACE listserv:

Moscow Police Beat Up Cosmonaut in Racist Attack
Created: 10.09.2004 12:01 MSK (GMT +3)

quote:
Two Moscow policemen beat up a Russian cosmonaut who had a “Chechen” surname, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported on Friday.

The incident took place near the Vykhino metro station in south-east Moscow on Thursday night. Colonel Magomed Tolboyev was stopped by two police sergeants for a routine document check. After the law enforcers saw the colonel's name, which suggests he is of Caucasian Muslim descent, they started beating him up. The beating stopped only after passers-by called the police station. Before leaving the attackers said: "Get away from here, you black, and tell your kinsmen we will strangle all of you, whatever the cost."

Colonel Magomed Tolboyev is a distinguished test pilot; he bears the country's top honorary title Hero of Russia. During his space career Tolboyev was commander of Russia’s first and only space shuttle - the Buran.

In his comments to the Ekho Moskvy radio station Tolboyev said that he will not bring the case to court as this was below his moral principles. "I am an officer of the Russian Air Force, I do not want to sue this scum," he said. "Apart from that, there are tens of thousands of them, nothing can be done anyway," he added.

"I could shake these sergeants off me in a second, but I understood that in this case they would have claimed that I had attacked them first. That is why I only asked them not to hit me on the back - I once fell from high altitude, my whole spine is made of plastic now," the colonel said.

What must be strengthened is not the security measures against the citizens, but the internal security of the law enforcement bodies so that they are more civilized.

On Friday morning, an official spokesman of the Interior Ministry’s directorate for Moscow City said that the interior security department had launched a probe into the incident and promised that the results of the probe would be made public.


Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-12-2004 11:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Policemen involved in incident with Hero of Russia will go unpunished
MOSCOW. Sept 12 (Interfax)
quote:
The Moscow police officials have announced that policemen of Moscow's eastern police district did not exceed their powers while "dealing" with retired air force colonel, Hero of Russia Magomed Tolboyev, the Moscow police's public relations department said on Sunday.

It said Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin on Sunday "heard reports by the chiefs of the personnel and internal security departments concerning checks on the facts cited in Alexander Khinshtein's article, published by the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets on September 10, 2004.

"The materials gathered suggest that allegations concerning Tolboyev's brutal treatment were untrue. The policemen did not possess weapons, and Tolboyev was neither beaten up, nor kicked," the Public Relations Department said in a release.

"It was established that the policemen had stopped Tolboyev for a passport check with due reason, while the use of force within the limits admissible in such situations, was provoked by Tolboyev's refusal to obey, and by his aggressive conduct," it said.

"Gen. Pronin confirmed the police officials' conclusions that no disciplinary measures should be applied against the policemen," the release says.

The materials of the checks have been passed over to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office.

"Copies of these documents have also been sent to the State Duma speaker, to the Rusian human rights commissioner, to the interior minister and to the Moscow mayor, and replies have been sent to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, to State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein and to Magomed Tolboyev," the Public Relations Department said.


eurospace
Member

Posts: 2610
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 09-12-2004 04:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for eurospace   Click Here to Email eurospace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
§1 The police is always right.
§2 Should the case occur that the police is not right, §1 applies.

It is a wellknown fact that traffic and passport controls by the Moscow police primarily serve as a pretext to collect bribes. A friend I visited there years ago always had boxes of cigarettes in his car to be handed out to "traffic controls".

Secondly, everyone originating from the Caucasian region (Tolboyev is from Dagestan, not Chechnya) is considered a potential terrorist in public opinion. Abuse is regular and supported by State authorities (as this case vividly illustrates). Security forces, military units and death squads operate virtually unpunished and have committed much larger crimes than that (disappearances, rape, murder) totally unpunished. It is not without irony that now "one of their own" has been the victim - and of course the victim is at fault.


------------------
Jürgen P Esders
Berlin, Germany
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astroaddies

All times are CT (US)

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts

Copyright 2020 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.


Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47a





advertisement