 Source: HRO.org Political prisoner Ildar Dadin has alleged that the use of torture in Karelian penal colony No. 7 in Segezha continues. Citing the Facebook page of Anastasia Zotova, the political prisoner’s wife, the news site Grani.ru reported Dadin’s claim on 9 November. ‘He [Dadin] has requested that [presidential human rights council members] Pavel Chikov and Igor Kalyapin visit so that he can confidentially indicate which fresh footage to look for (since thirty days have yet to pass).’ She added that Dadin looked terrible. Speaking to Gazeta.ru, Zotova clarified that Dadin had developed a tic and begun stammering, problems he had not suffered from before. Igor Kalyapin, chair of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, had inspected prison colony No. 7 during 7-8 November in his capacity as a member of the presidential human rights council. He told Novaya Gazeta that on Monday, eight prisoners had broken out of the main prison building and made it to the roof, from which they hung a banner meant to attract the attention of human rights advocates. However, the prison authorities intervened before any visitors could notice the demonstration. That same evening, all eight prisoners were transferred to another penal colony. Citing Agora chair Pavel Chikov, also one of the inspectors, Mediazona reported that their new place of detention was prison colony No. 1, a maximum security prison in the town of Naidvoitsy, which is in the Segezha district of Karelia. The human rights advocates later found out about the protest from another inmate. Accompanied by the deputy head of the region’s Federal Penitentiary Service directorate, they asked that Colonel Aleksei Fedotov arrange a meeting with the protestors. The authorities turned down the request, and an appeal by Mikhail Fedotov, chair of the presidential human rights council, brought no results. Pavel Chikov did not rule out the possibility that the inmates could be punished for their protest. Igor Kalyapin told TASS that despite promises made, the authorities were refusing to provide inspectors with documents concerning Dadin’s case and the punishments inflicted on the political prisoner. ‘In particular, we were not given access to a report produced by the prison colony’s staff, or to written explanations submitted by Dadin,’ noted the human rights advocate. ‘Dadin himself claims that no such explanations were Given in the first place. If so the question arises as to whether disciplinary measures taken against him, and his placement in solitary confinement, are legal.’ Translated by Lincoln Pigman |
HRO.org in English >