Victims ignore court hearing in case against human rights defender Nagavkin

In the case against Igor Nagavkin, the court refused to watch the video recording of the incident in the cell in the absence of the victims, employees of the SIZO (pre-trial prison), who did not come to the court hearing without explaining the reasons for their non-appearance.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Igor Nagavkin complained about a provocation when he was placed to a cell with pedophiles, which caused a conflict with the SIZO warders. On January 21, the SIZO administration abandoned its financial claims against Igor Nagavkin, but the trial in the case on disorganization of the SIZO’s operation was no closed.

On January 15, at a court hearing, Igor Nagavkin spoke about cases of torture of prisoners at the SIZO, and the prosecutor’s office agreed to accept his complaint for verification.

At the last court hearing, it was planned to watch the video recording of the incident in the cell, but the judge refused to watch the video in the absence of the victims and postponed the trial to February 8.

Valentin Bogdan, the executive director of the Foundation “In Defence of the Prisoners’ Rights”*, believes that the settlement agreement concluded between Igor Nagavkin and the SIZO administration will have a positive effect on the final verdict in the case.

However, lawyer Sergey Ivaschenko suggests that the position of the victims accusing Igor Nagavkin of disorganizing the operation of the SIZO will affect the verdict even taking into account the renunciation of the SIZO’s financial claims.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.