Two police officers in St Petersburg have been arrested after two teenagers, whom they detained earlier, ended up in hospital. Prosecutors suspect them of using torture on the boys.
A district police lieutenant and a criminal police major are suspected of the brutal treatment of two boys.
According to investigators, the suspected men were trying to extract information from one of the teenagers on a theft allegedly committed by his father.
In July, the assailants kept their underage victims at a local police station overnight, where they savagely beat them, burned their genitals, smothered them with plastic bags and threatened to shoot them, a report says.
The teens, aged 16 and 17, are both Moldovan citizens, says Izvestia newspaper. They were probably seen as convenient victims for the policemen, as a lot of people from Moldova work in Russia illegally and would be reluctant to seek official protection.
Both policemen are now being held in custody.