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Torture in Russia

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Torture in Russia Torture in Russia Cartoon depicting slonik (“elephant”) torture: see page 26 © Magadan Group, International “This man-made Hell” Society for Human Rights INTRODUCTION Amnesty International April 1997 AI Index: EUR 46/04/97 2 Torture in Russia: “This man-made Hell” “We don’t have torture here; (“elephant”), beatings, and special methods of it’s prohibited by law. And in physical restraint, known as lastochka (“swallow”). fact, we have never had Under the guise of fighting crime, there is a torture in Russia. No, there tendency to expand the powers of security and is no torture...” law enforcement agencies to the detriment of constitutional rights and guarantees. Colonel Leonid Golovnyov, Deputy head of the Department on Information, MVD of the Russian Federation, 1996 On 12 November 1996 the United Nations (UN) Committee against Torture in Geneva examined the Second Periodic Report of the Russian Federation under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture). i Amnesty International urged the Russian Government to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee against Torture. Amnesty International had submitted its own report to the members of the Committee detailing its concerns about allegations of systematic and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment in Russia. In addition, this current report was submitted to the members of the Committee in a draft form in order to brief them on particular individual cases of concern to Amnesty International and give them a solid background information regarding the practice of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in the Russian Federation. The human rights organization also held a meeting with the Russian delegation in Geneva in which measures planned by the authorities were discussed. Amnesty International has received numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects in police custody throughout the Russian Federation, and within the context of the conflict in Chechnya. Members of ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable. There is an apparent pattern of ill-treatment of detainees who are members of ethnic minorities, specifically ethnic Chechens and those from the Caucasus, by the law enforcement officials in Moscow, the capital, and other parts of Russia. The torture methods used by the police officers include asphyxiation, known in Russian as slonik AI Index: EUR 46/04/97 Amnesty International April 1997 Torture in Russia: “This man-made Hell” 3 The findings of the Committee against committed by the military forces of the Torture confirmed Amnesty International´s Russian Federation and Chechen concerns: soldiers have been brutalized by older separatists with a view to bringing to soldiers and officers in the army without the justice those against whom there is authorities taking appropriate remedial measures; evidence of their involvement or complicity the authorities have failed to establish an effective in such acts. machinery for the prompt examination of prisoners’ complaints; the process of harmonizing The information in this report is based domestic legislation with human rights is on various sources, including two visits to progressing slowly; the police and prison Russia by Amnesty International delegates to personnel lack training; people facing extradition interview victims of torture and ill-treatment and do not enjoy appropriate safeguards; the visit penal institutions.1 widespread reported abuses of human rights in the conflict in Chechnya, including torture, are not being investigated promptly and effectively. Amnesty International strongly supports the recommendation of the Committee that the Russian Federation adopt a comprehensive action plan to stop torture. The plan includes: the criminalization of torture expediting the process of training of personnel, including medical personnel, of all agencies engaged in the enforcement of the law and detention of prisoners; the adoption of programs to inform detainees and the public of their rights and the legal means to protect them; the establishment of an effective machinery to monitor the conditions under which investigations of crimes are conducted, the conditions under which persons are held in custody and conditions in prisons; the establishment of an appropriate process 1 During a July 1996 visit to Russia Amnesty for the prompt investigation of complaints International delegates gathered an extensive number of of suspects, detainees and prisoners and the personal testimonies and interviewed victims of torture prosecution of the offenders; and ill-treatment. A representative of the organization the radical improvement of conditions in visited the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) No. 60-1 and prisons; the corrective labour colony in the town of Ryazan, which the abolition of acts, rules and regulations for the first time had opened their doors to human rights allowing remand in custody for longer than monitors. In Moscow, Amnesty International visited SIZO 48 hours without judicial authorization; No. 2 at the Butyrka prison and the City Department of the abolition of acts, rules and regulations Internal Affairs No. 40. A number of interviews with limiting access to legal assistance; and victims of alleged torture and ill-treatment were the establishment of an independent conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ryazan. Information on ill-treatment had also been gathered committee to investigate allegations of during an earlier visit by Amnesty International to Siberia torture and inhuman or degrading treatment in December 1995. Amnesty International April 1997 AI Index: EUR 46/04/97 4 Torture in Russia: “This man-made Hell” 4 I. organized crime” , and urged the President CURRENT LEGISLATION to rescind it, on the grounds that it conflicts FACILITATING TORTURE AND with international human rights standards and the Russian Constitution and facilitates ILL-TREATMENT torture and ill-treatment.5 The organization has called on the President to order, as a “I am all for the violation of human rights matter of urgency, a thorough and impartial if the human is a bandit or a criminal”. investigation into all human rights violations Sergey Stepashin in 1994, then head of the FSB and abuses, including allegations of torture commenting on the Presidential Decree on fighting and ill-treatment by law enforcement organized crime No 1226 officials while conducting investigations, arrests and interrogations, and specifically The Russian Federation is a party to the those which occurred under the provisions of Convention against Torture, and to the the presidential decree on fighting organized International Covenant on Civil and Political crime. 2 Rights (ICCPR) and its first Optional Protocol. The presidential decree allows law Both these treaties prohibit the use of torture and enforcement authorities to detain persons other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or suspected of ties to organized crime for up to punishment. The 1993 Russian Constitution 30 days without charge and without access provides in Article 21 (2) that "no one shall be subjected to torture, violence or other cruel or to a lawyer or to the outside world. This degrading treatment or punishment. No one may conflicts with Article 22 of the Russian be subjected to medical, scientific or other Constitution which provides that a person experiments without voluntary consent".3 may not be held for more than 48 hours Nevertheless, new legislation continued before a court rules on the legality of the to be enacted by the State Duma (the lower detention. Article 9 of the ICCPR states that house of the Russian Parliament) or promulgated “anyone who is arrested or detained on a by the President, and old legislation has criminal charge shall be brought promptly remained in force, which facilitates the before a judge”, and that “anyone who is occurrence of acts of torture and ill-treatment. deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a 1. Presidential Decree No. 1226 of 14 court, in order that that court may decide June 1994 without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the For some time Amnesty International has detention is not lawful”. The presidential expressed concern about Presidential Decree decree also does not guarantee the right of No. 1226 of 14 June 1994,“Urgent the accused to access to a defence counsel measures to defend the population from during the period spent in detention. Prompt banditry and other manifestations of access to a defence lawyer of one’s own 2 The USSR acceded to the Optional Protocol formally in July 1991. The Russian 4 Federation is bound as a successor state to both the ICCPR and the Optional ____ Protocol. __________ __________ _________ _ 1226 _ 14 ____ 1994, “_ __________ 3 _____ __ ______ _________ __ __________ _ ____ __________ ______________ As one of the leading experts and promoters of the Russian legal reform, Sergey Pashin, ____________”. noted in 1995, "people in a lawless state (which Russia still is) suffer more from arbitrary 5 enforcement of the law and misapplications of proper legal norms than from See, the forenactment example, of Open bad letter from Amnesty International to the presidential candidates laws". on the occasion of the 16 June 1996 Presidential Elections, AI Index: EUR 46/29/96. AI Index: EUR 46/04/97 Amnesty International April 1997 Torture in Russia: “This man-made Hell” 5 choice is recognized as an essential decree, about 14,000 people were detained safeguard in international standards such as for up to 30 days without being charged.7 Principles 15, 17 and 18 of the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons 2. Presidential Decrees No. 1815 of 2 under Any Form of Detention or November 1993 and No. 1025 of 10 July Imprisonment (Body of Principles) and 1996 Principle 7 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers. Amnesty International has In addition to Decree No. 1226 on fighting found that denial of such access to a lawyer, organized crime, on 10 July 1996 the Russian family and medical practitioner is one of the President signed a new Decree No.
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