Source: HRO.org (info), 01/06/12

· Human rights defenders  · Prisoners  · Ministry of Internal Affairs

Head of the Kazan Human Rights Centre Igor Sholokhov and representatives of the Public Oversight Commission for the Observance of Human Rights in Places of Detention have met with members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) Johan Friestedt and Djordje Alempijevic.

The foreign experts inquired about cases involving the use of torture against detainees (those on remand and in prison) in special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Penitentiary Service in Tatarstan. The Kazan Human Rights Centre has worked intensively on police-related issues over a period of nine years and has achieved the prosecution of nearly 30 police officers. Lawyers from the organisation are currently representing the interests of victims in 10 criminal cases (including four cases involving the now notorious Dalny police department) and pre-investigation checks are being conducted on up to another 15 cases involving the use of violence against detainees. A list of cases being dealt with by the human rights defenders was passed on to the members of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

The head of the Kazan Human Rights Centre, Igor Sholokhov, drew attention to the poor incarceration conditions in the special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan. For example, detainees are not fed, nor are they provided with their own place to sleep, which under Article 3 of the European Convention constitute inhuman treatment. Whether foodstuffs from detainees' relatives are accepted is at the discretion of officials in each police station.

In turn the members of the Public Oversight Commission spoke about the torture and other violations in pre-trial detention centres and penal colonies of the Republic. As became known to the human rights defenders, on 1 June the members of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture intend to visit Kazan pre-trial detention centre No.1 where, according to the results of earlier investigations, the lives and health of detainees are at risk.

Information provided by the human rights defenders will be included in a special report by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture which will be sent to the government of the Russian Federation.

Background information

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment visits detention facilities to examine the conditions of those imprisoned there. Such facilities include, for example, prisons, juvenile detention centres, police stations, immigration detention centres and psychiatric hospitals, as well as homes for the aged and disabled.

Delegations of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture have unrestricted access to detention facilities and the right to move around inside such facilities without restriction. They talk to detainees in private and freely contact anybody who may have information.

After each visit, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture compiles a report which it sends to the corresponding country. The report includes the findings and recommendations of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.