Inmate Khubiev stops his hunger strike in Nalchik SIZO

At the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of the capital of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), where earlier Albert Khubiev, 24, sewed up his mouth and went on hunger strike, he stopped his protest action.

The inmate had sewed up his mouth in protest against the actions of the SIZO personnel, who, as he claims, beat him and took his mobile phone away.

Valery Khatazhukov, a member of the Public Oversight Commission and the head of the KBR's Human Rights Centre, who visited Khubiev on August 20, said that he had not noticed any mental disorders in the inmate.

"Khubiev's version is that he was beaten after he asked to be taken to the toilet, while the SIZO staff insists that they had used force to prevent a suicide attempt. They say that Khubiev is inadequate. But personally, he didn't make that impression on me. And if it is indeed the case, let them give us a conclusion of a psychiatrist," Mr Khatazhukov said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The presence of a mobile phone in a cell is a violation of the law, "but, again, the question arises, where the detainee could get the phone, if not from the SIZO staff themselves," he added.

Valery Khatazhukov said that he was struck by the situation with Khubiev. For the first time ever he ran into a situation that an inmate decided to use such an extreme measure of protest as sewing his mouth up.

Vladislav Makoev, the head of the regime division at the SIZO-1, has explained the situation with Khubiev as follows: "The employees had to apply force to Khubiev to prevent him making self-harm; they may do it under Federal Law" On Custody of Suspects and Defendants".