TB patients are kept in Pyatigorsk SIZO together with healthy detainees, Ingush's relatives say

Relatives of a resident of Ingushetia, who is kept in the Pyatigorsk SIZO (pre-trial prison), known as "Bely Lebed" (White Swan), allege violations of prisoners' rights to appropriate custody conditions. The SIZO administration denied the information.

"TB patients are kept in same cells with healthy detainees; they are only temporarily placed in the quarantine cell located in the basement. I'm all the time afraid that my husband may be infected with tuberculosis," a woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Also, as she said, the detainees cannot sleep in the due time: "They have to wait in turn to take a bed. For example, five people have three beds; so, they use them in turn. More than ten persons may be kept in one cell, and TB patients among them," said the suspect's wife.

Magomed Gagiev, a well-known Ingush rights defender and a lawyer of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", believes that if the SIZO in Pyatigorsk really holds TB patients along with healthy detainees, where they have no individual beds - this is a violation of Russian legislation and deprivation of detainees of their rights to appropriate custody conditions.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent telephoned to the administration of the Pyatigorsk SIZO, where he received no comments on relatives' complaints but was told that "this cannot be the case."