On 26 February 2017 Ildar Dadin was released from prison in the Altai region, following the quashing of his conviction by the Supreme Court on 22 February 2017. As RFE/RL reported, Dadin was serving a 2 1/2 prison sentence as the first, and as yet only, person to have been convicted under a new law that introduced criminal liability for repeated violations of Russia's draconian laws on public assembly. While held in a prison in Karelia, Ildar Dadin alleged in a letter that he had been subjected to torture. As Dadin told The Moscow Times on his release. "Initially, he says, the prison authorities abused him verbally. Then, he was brought to the prison director's office, where he was hung by his wrists and threatened with rape. He was left hanging in his cell, he says, sure he would be raped. Dadin went to see the prison nurse, but she concluded there was no sign of abuse on his body. 'The problem is the sadists know how to beat [so nobody notices],' he says. Instead, the prison director beat him for appealing to the nurse and starting a hunger strike, Dadin alleges." Tom Balmforth, in an article published by Human Rights in Ukraine, reported that Dadin said he had been "broken" by the abuse he suffered in prison. Dadin says that he intends to take several months off to recover, but then intends to continue to campaign against torture in Russia. 'Russia Rejects Rights Court's Recommendations for Combatting Police Torture,' The Moscow Times, 3 March 2017
'Igor Kalyapin challenges eighth refusal to institute criminal case on attack in Chechnya,' Caucasian Knot, 2 March 2017