Alleged enforced psychiatric internment of Mr. Boris Smetanin and Ms. Elena Kozvonina

Detention in a psychiatric hospital / Torture and other forms of ill-treatment / Fear for safety

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in the Russian Federation.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), a member of OMCT SOS-Torture Network, about the enforced treatment in a psychiatric hospital of Mr. Boris Smetanin, a leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP)[1] in the town of Kirov, as well as of Ms. Elena Kozvonina, a resident of Kirov whose property rights were violated and who has figthed for the past two years to secure her rights.

According to the information received, on 22 January 2009, Mr. Boris Smetanin, 20 years old, was led to the Bekhterev psychiatric hospital, of the Kirov region, subsequent of a scuffle he had with a friend and after which his mother called the ambulance. It seems that the relation between Mr. Smetanin and his mother are complicated, due to his political and public activities. Since then, Mr. Boris Smetanin has remained detained at the hospital, and only his parents are allowed to visit him. In particular, Mr. Smetanin is not allowed to walk in the hospital yard.

Although Mr. Smetanin’s hospitalisation might have initially been justified by his health, his long term of psychiatric treatment cannot reportedly be justified, according to Mr. Evgenij Kokoulin, Vice-President of the Vyatka Human Rights Society and a member of the Human Rights Commission at the Governor of the Kirov region. In addition, it is worth noting that the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Kirov initiated a preliminary inquiry into Mr. Smetanin’s activities, allegedly trying to find grounds to charge him under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code (“participation in a criminal group of extremist character”). Some time before the hospitalisation, the FSB moved the case to the Prosecutor’s office. However, as of issuing this urgent appeal the Prosecutor’s office had not initiated any criminal case.

On 14 April 2009, Mr. Evgenij Kokoulin was allowed to see Mr. Boris Smetanin. In his words, he was horrified with his condition. Mr. Smetanin complained that he was forced to take medication and receive some injections. According to the information received, Mr. Kokoulin told that Mr. Smetanin’s movements were very slow and his eyes were distracted. Mr. Kokoulin also managed to talk to Mr. Smetanin’s doctor, who refused to answer the question about Mr. Smetanin’s possible release.

In the past, Mr. Boris Smetanin had already been subjected to various forms of reprisals. For instance, in October 2007, he was expelled from the Vyatskiy State Humanitarian University after he performed a song with lyrics critical of the United Russia Party (the party that supports President Dmitry Medvedev)[2]. On October 25, 2007, he was detained by the road police as he was disseminating fliers with calls to vote for the “Other Russia” coalition. He was also detained during 10 days in 2008 in order to prevent him from participating in the “March of Dissent”[3] organised in Moscow on March 3, 2008.

Furthermore, on 10 April 2009, Ms. Elena Kozvonina was summoned to the police headquarters of Kirov (UVD). Upon her arrival, she was arrested and taken for psychiatric examination. According to the decision N° 176 made by the collegiums of doctors, “it is difficult to make an opinion of Ms. Kozvonina’s psychiatric state and her sanity. Therefore, she is ruled to undergo in-hospital examination”. Ms. Kozvonina was then taken to court, where judge Oleg Izmajlov ruled after ten minutes to hospitalise her for an indefinite period of time. Ms. Kozvonina has appealed the ruling but the date of its consideration has not been fixed yet. Since then, Ms. Kozvonina is being hospitalised at the psychiatric hospital of Kirov, where she is being kept behind locked doors and not allowed to walk. It is worth recalling that Ms. Kozvonina was never hospitalised in a psychiatric hospital in the past.

For more than two years, Ms. Kozvonina has been trying to demand that the Prosecutor’s Office starts an investigation into an alleged illegal selling of the land plot which she owned. On 11 February 2009, two policemen came to her working place and ordered her to go with them. They allegedly did not have any warrant and they did not introduce themselves. According to the information received, Ms. Kozvonina was forced into their car and brought to the police station, where she was questioned with regard to an administrative case opened on her. The following day, Ms. Kozvonina went to hospital to get signs of violence fixed. She filed a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office. According to the information received, there has been no response.

On 24 March, Ms. Kozvonina participated in a meeting with the Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group during her visit to Kirov. Ms. Kozvonina then openly told about lawlessness of the law-enforcement agents.

On 20 April 2009, the Governor of the Kirov Region, Mr. Nikita Belykh, confirmed in an interview to the Echo of Moscow radio station that Mr. Smetanin and Ms. Kozvonina were being kept in a regional psychiatric hospital, adding that the circumstances of their detention of both were being checked by Mr. Kokoulin.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Boris Smetanin and Ms. Elena Kozvonina. Furthermore, OMCT is concerned with regard to their enforced treatment in a psychiatric hospital, as it seems solely based at sanctioning their activities. In this regard, OMCT recalls that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations, in its report E/CN.4/2005/6 on “issues related to psychiatric detention”, stated that “psychiatric detention shall not be used to jeopardize someone’s freedom of expression nor to punish, deter or discredit him on account of his political, ideological, religious views, convictions or activity”.

OMCT therefore calls on the authorities to guarantee their safety at all times, as well as to put an end to their enforced treatment in a psychiatric hospital, which can be considered as ill-treatments[4]. To that extent, OMCT recalls Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation”. OMCT further recalls the absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment and recalls article 11 of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment stipulating that, “Each State Party shall keep under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment in any territory under its jurisdiction, with a view to preventing any cases of torture”.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Russia urging them to:

1. Guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Boris Smetanin and Ms. Elena Kozvonina, as well as their immediate and unconditional access to their lawyers and relatives;
2. Guarantee that Mr. Boris Smetanin and Ms. Elena Kozvonina be examined by independent doctors;
3. Ensure that their fundamental right to freedom be respected;
4. Carry out a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into those events, in order to bring those responsible before a competent, independent and impartial tribunal and apply penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
5. Ensure the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Addresses

• Mr. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Faxes:+ 7 495 206 5173 / 230 2408, Email: president@gov.ru;
• Mr. Yurii Yakovlevich Chaika, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Prosecutor General’s office, Moskva K-31, Ul. B. Dimitrovka, d 15a, Russian Federation, Fax: + 7 495692-17-25 / +7 495 692-96-00;
• Chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission of the Russian Federation, Ms. Ella Pamfilova, 103132 g. Moskva, Staraya ploshchad, d 8/5,pod 3, Russian Federation, Fax: +7 495 20 64 855;
• Mr. Vladimir Lukin, Russian Federal Ombudsman for Human Rights, Ul. Miasnitskaia, 47, 107084, Moscow, Russian Federation. Fax: +7 495 207-74-70 / 39 69 / +7 495 207-53-37;
• Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Rashid Nurgaliev, ul. Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 117049, Moskva, Fax: + 7 495 237 49 25;
• Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Fax:+ 7 495 230 21 30 / + 7 095 244 2203;
• Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Av. de la Paix 15, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland, e-mail : mission.russian@ties.itu.int, fax: +4122 734 40 44;
• Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brussels, 31-33 boulevard du Régent, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: + 32 2 513 76 49.

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of the Russian Federation in your respective countries.

Geneva, 27 April 2009.

Kindly inform OMCT of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.

[1] The National Bolshevik Party is known best for its anti-Kremlin street demonstrations. The party has been banned repeatedly by authorities, and a number of its members are currently behind bars. The NBP is a prominent member of “The Other Russia” coalition of opposition parties.

[2] The song was saying: “United Russia Party is the yoke for the people and the United Russia is the police state”. The official pretext was Mr. Smetanin’s failure to pass one of the exams but he could not take it as a few days before he had been arrested in Nizhny Novgorod during a commemoration in the honour of Ms. Anna Politkovskaya and detained for ten days, and the dean of the faculty refused to allow Mr. Smetanin to take the exam after his release, referring to a prohibition from the rector, who is the number five on the list of the United Russia Party.

[3] Name given to the demonstrations organised by the United civic front, a coalition of various opposition movements.

[4] See Report by UN Special Rapporteur Mr. P. Kooijmans, 1985/33 E/CN.4/1986/15, 19 February 1986, at http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=103, paragraph 119, who included among the forms of physical torture, “administration of drugs, in detention and psychiatric institutions”.