Gulagu.net has published new videos of torture of prisoners in Saratov | News from Germany about Russia | DW

The human rights project Gulagu.net on the evening of Tuesday, November 9, published on its YouTube channel a new video about the torture of prisoners in the Saratov Regional Tuberculosis Hospital (OTB-1).

The material tells about six episodes of sexual abuse of prisoners. According to human rights defenders, the recording contains “evidence of the commission of more than 10 grave violent crimes and more than 10 malfeasance by officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Saratov Region, as a result of which people were subjected to torture and humiliation.”

The description for the video says that the rape and torture of prisoners was committed by people officially employed in the hospital by orderlies and caretakers, they acted on the instructions of high-ranking officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Everything that happened was filmed on service video recorders, which were issued in the security department of OTB-1. It is noted that the bullying of prisoners was supervised by at least five employees of state bodies.

Torture videotaping

In early October, the Gulagu.net project began publishing videos of torture received from a former prisoner of OTB-1, programmer Sergei Savelyev. After being released on parole, he managed to take out a video archive with torture of prisoners from the correctional institution. After the publication, Savelyev himself went to France, where he asked for political asylum. In Russia, he was put on the wanted list.

After the information about torture was made public, the Federal Penitentiary Service fired the chief of OTB-1, his deputy, as well as a number of hospital employees. The head of the Saratov Federal Penitentiary Service resigned. The Investigative Committee of Russia opened several criminal cases after the publication.

See also:

• Infographics: Political Prisoners in Russia in Facts and Figures

  Not on the lists

  Now in Russia, according to various estimates, more than 300 people are being persecuted for political reasons. In reality, human rights activists argue, this figure is much higher. The term “political persecution” is evaluative, since there are no political articles in the Russian Criminal Code officially. Who is considered a political prisoner is up to human rights organizations, including international ones.

• 

  Infographics: Political Prisoners in Russia in Facts and Figures

  Regional statistics

  Tatarstan and Bashkortostan lead after Moscow in the number of criminal cases. The reason is the persecution of members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which is banned in the Russian Federation and in a number of countries. The Memorial Center refuses to consider it terrorist. The Murmansk region was in the top 10 because of the Arctic Sunrise case: in 2013, Greenpeace activists tried to infiltrate an oil platform and stage a protest.

• 

  Infographics: Political Prisoners in Russia in Facts and Figures

  Prisoners of conscience

  Most of all political prisoners are still prisoners of conscience. Amnesty International counts among them, for example, the majority of the accused in the “swamp case”.

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  Against faith, opposition and ecology

  “Most of the people who fall into the ‘other’ category participate in various religious organizations whose activities are prohibited in Russia. They are not activists, just people of various professions who have common beliefs,” says politpressing.org project coordinator Grigory Durnovo.

  Author: Elena Barysheva

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