Gulagu.net informant Sergey asked for asylum in France | News from Germany about Russia | DW

Former prisoner named Sergei (not named – Ed.), who transmitted videos of torture in Russian prisons to the human rights portal Gulagu.net, fled Russia, fleeing persecution by the special services, and is in France, where he will seek political asylum, said the founder of Gulagu.net Vladimir Osechkin on the portal’s website on Saturday, 16 October.

“Sergei at CDG-Paris airport. A young Belarusian who himself went through torture in the FSB, press huts and overcrowded cells in the pre-trial detention center, worked without pay for 5 years in the most famous Russian torture center OTB-1 Saratov, transferred the secret video archive of the FSIN / FSB to a human rights project Gulagu.net, who risked his life to save others and stop the terrible torture, is now in Europe, on a land where human rights and democracy are respected. This is a historic day for Sergei himself, for our entire team, and for millions of Russians, ”- Osechkin wrote.

State Duma refused to investigate information about torture in colonies

In early October, Osechkin announced that he had received several dozen gigabytes of videos, photographs and other documents about the abuse of prisoners in Russia. This information was provided to them by a programmer named Sergei, who was serving time in one of the colonies and was engaged in the maintenance of video recorders and surveillance cameras there.

The publication of Gulagu.net caused a wide response in Russia. Communists in the State Duma called for a parliamentary investigation of torture in Russian colonies. Nevertheless, the State Duma did not support this initiative because of the position of the deputies from the ruling United Russia party.

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.

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  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 got into the top 10 because of the Arctic Sunrise case: in 2013, Greenpeace activists tried to infiltrate an oil platform and stage a protest.

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  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, most of the defendants in the “swamp case”.

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  Infographics: Political Prisoners in Russia in Facts and Figures

  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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