HRC takes testimonies of SFD and NCFD natives about torture in Saratov

The Russian Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC) has conducted a polling of the prisoners who had earlier complained about torture at the Regional Tuberculosis Hospital (known as OTB-1) of the Saratov Regional Branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN); and they confirmed their testimonies about mass violence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 9, the human rights project "Gulagu.net" posted video evidence of violence and torture practiced against residents of Chechnya, Dagestan, Georgia and Azerbaijan at the above Saratov prison hospital.

Human rights defenders managed to interview all the prisoners serving their sentences at OTB-1, whose names were provided to the members of the HRC, said Andrei Babushkin, an HRC member.

There are at least one native of Georgia and one of the Chechen Republic among those who had been tortured, Mr Babushkin has added. "We also talked with Said Gesadov, a resident of Saratov and a Chechen by nationality. He received no medical care but was given some drug, from which he lost consciousness; and he was kept in a cold cell," Andrei Babushkin told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Timur Kamalov and Livan Nagoev were also named among the respondents who may come from the regions of the Southern Federal District (SFD) and the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), Mr Babushkin has noted. "The worst terrible [torture] was that they put heads of their victims into the toilet, head into the urinal, [...] entered their anuses, forced to write confessions that they were gays, that they had been raped in the colony; they poured water by covering their faces with towels, three buckets for each; and they lost consciousness," Andrei Babushkin has cited convicts' complaints.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 7, 2021 at 07:48 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.