HRC members state devastation of KChR's social care institutions

A part of the social care institutions of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic (KChR) are overcrowded and in urgent need of repairs, members of the delegation of the Human Rights Council (HRC) stated after their trip to the republic. Besides, two detainees in pre-trial prison complained to HRC about tortures.

Let us remind you that the members of the Russian Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights arrived in the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) on May 30 and will stay in the region until June 9. On June 6, the delegation arrived in the KChR.

On June 7, the delegation visited the psychiatric hospital in the village of Kubran, rights defender Evgeny Bobrov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The hospital is in terrible unsanitary condition; part of the buildings were built back in the 19^th century; besides, we fixed a two- and three-fold excess of the maximum accommodation capacity," Mr Bobrov said.

Also, a group of rights defenders visited the SIZO (pre-trial prison) and IVS (temporary detention centre) of Cherkessk.

Evgeny Bobrov has noted that at the SIZO two citizens complained to HRC members that they had been tortured. "We found there two men who, allegedly, had been tortured in the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and then transferred to Cherkessk. One of them was transferred without notifying his relatives; the other man claimed that he had been tortured in the territory of KChR, namely, at the so-called 'E Centre'," said Andrei Babushkin, another member of the delegation.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.