Rights defenders worry about fate of Georgian Stanislav Kankiya, kept in Moscow SIZO

Russian human rights defenders expressed their concern about the fate of the businessman Stanislav Kankiya, native of Georgia, prisoner of the metropolitan prison "Matrosskaya Tishina" (Sailors' Silence). He has been under investigation on charges of fraud for more than 17 months. During that time the 47-year-old man got four apoplectic attacks, got half-paralyzed and nearly blind; however, his pre-trial restrictions were not changed.

Entrepreneur is accused of fraud

Stanislav Kankiya was born in Tbilisi, he graduated from the Tbilisi Institute of Foreign Languages (English and Chinese); since 1991 he was engaged in economic security and development issues, he was a member of a working group of the Economic Commission of the Supreme Council of Georgia. Stanislav Kankiya has sports awards; he won several times the Championship of Georgia in diving, and he was a member of the Georgian team. In the 90s Stanislav Kankiya worked in Moscow and in the South American countries; in 2000 he was appointed President of the "Otchizna" (Fatherland) Foundation.

According to the investigators, while heading the non-commercial "Fatherland" Foundation, Kankiya was cheating schoolchildren: he had at his hands of their applications and photocopies of their passports and, without the knowledge of the schoolchildren, he allegedly fabricated letters of attorney in the name of his employees, then he opened accounts at the Savings Bank. According to the documents, the schoolchildren were employed under the social programme; and their salaries were transferred from the budget to their accounts. 7000 roubles per month were allocated to each schoolchild; and Kankiya had 500 contracts with the schoolchildren.

The entrepreneur faces from 5 to 10 years of imprisonment under Article of "large-scale fraud" and "misappropriation of budget funds", the TV Channel "Dozhd" (Rain) reports.

While in prison, Kankiya suffered four apoplectic attacks. According to his wife Valentina, Stanislav got blind on his left eye, his right eye is almost blind, his face got distorted, his limbs fail to function; he does not recognize his wife. Stanislav can die simply before the trial, the "Novaya Gazeta" (New Newspaper) reports.

Meanwhile, in turn, the paramedic on duty in the SIZO (pre-trial prison), assures that a condition of the prisoner is stable and his life is not threatened, the agency "Interfax" reports.

Human rights defenders insist on medical examination for Kankiya

Today, the human rights defenders expect to move the issue off the ground and note that two inmates of the SIZO - Adrei Kudoyarov and Oleg Golobokov - died last month in Moscow. The one prisoner was accused of fraud, the other - in violation of copyright.

On Saturday, October 15, the members of the Public Supervising Committee (PSC) met with the prisoner.

"Stanislav got significant brain damage; his blood pressure fluctuates. He behaves inadequately: he says that the prison is like a museum, and the nurse reminds him of his sister, although Kankiya never had a sister. His cellmates confirmed that he did not play the fool," said human rights defender Zoya Svetova, the member of the PSC, the observer of the magazine "The New Times". She notes that the man "will be treated in the prison hospital very slowly, and he needs urgent medical treatment by specialists".

Anton Tsvetkov, another member of the PSC, assesses the state of the prisoner in another way: "The businessman himself told us that now he suffered an apoplectic attack in this September and that he got eye injury when he was 18 years old. However, he said that now he really his eye ached and that he had trouble with coordination. He got a partial inhibition of speech, thoughts and actions; however, he recognizes all people, remembers dates and tries to joke."

"In the SIZO, any disease develops faster," notes Valery Borschov, the human rights defender from the Moscow Helsinki Group, and continues: "In prison, there is damp atmosphere and too little light, the prisoners are not taken for walks, and prison hospitals have no qualified doctors or medicines."

The members of the PSC recommended Kankiya to apply for a re-examination in the hospital No. 20, which would be conducted under the control of the Public Committee, the "Novye Izvestia" reports and adds that Kankiya is accused under the same Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as the lawyer Sergey Magnitsky and the school director Andrei Kudoyarov, who died at the SIZO without timely medical treatment.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Russian human rights defenders plan to discuss at the meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which may take place in December, the problem of detention facilities, where people often die from poor conditions or because of torture This was reported by Lyudmila Alekseeva, the member of the Council under the head of the state on civil society development and on human rights.

"We decided to raise a question of blindfold killings. Since, when people die without court verdict due to poor conditions in detention facility, or because of torture, this is blindfold killing. And, as we know, there is no death penalty in our country," said the defender.