Wave of violence against civic activists must be stopped

From October 2017 to January 2018, eight activists of the anti-fascist movement were arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist community in different regions of the country. Soon after their detention, a majority of them confessed and faced charges; however, it later became known that confessions were obtained by the FSB under torture.

The detention of suspects was accompanied by beatings, torture, and prolonged isolation from relatives and lawyers, in some cases lasting several days. Obviously, the purpose of the FSB investigators was to get confessions in the first hours and days after the detention. Use of torture in St. Petersburg is documented by personal testimonies of detainees and by examination of detainees by members of the Public Observation Commission (POC). In addition, medical evidence was collected to confirm the existence of traces of torture. There is less information on the procedure of detention and violence against the accused in Penza. Relatives and friends of the accused were not able to attract attention of human rights organizations at the time of detention because of the almost complete absence of the latter in the region. At present, the Public Observation Commission of Penza has no representatives of independent civic organizations, who would’ve registered and given publicity to torture practices in the pre-trial detention center. FSB officers repeatedly demanded that the detained and their relatives were not to contact journalists nor human rights defenders, and not to provide information to the media, threatening to continue torturing the detainees if they did. . Nevertheless, in February 2018, two defendants from Penza disclosed information about the torture committed against them. This resulted in the resumption of the torture and threats by the FSB investigators, followed by the activists withdrawing their testimonies, which is being video recorded.

Torture and ill-treatment against detainees with the aim to obtain confessions as well as an instrument to suppress their will and to punish for active actions in their defense, is a widespread practice in Russia, unfortunately. Every year, human rights organizations receive information about hundreds of cases of torture and ill-treatment from different regions, in most of the cases violence is committed either by penitentiary staff or by police. In the case against anti-fascists, we see two new very worrying trends. Foremost, the Russian Criminal Code articles on combating terrorism are used against civil activists. Secondly, the use of torture during the investigation stage committed by FSB officers by itself is a very disturbing situation that causes additional fears of impunity. As of today, human rights defenders are not aware of any case where the special services officers were brought to justice for use of torture, ill-treatment, or for enforced disappearance.

In this case, people are detained for very vague accusations of creating a terrorist community; torture them in order to get confessions that they allegedly have been involved in preparation of terrorist acts on the eve of the presidential elections and the World Cup; relatives are threatened to keep silent. These new phenomena for Russia cause even greater concern amid the ongoing repression in Turkey, where human rights defenders and journalists are systematically persecuted and receive absurd accusations precisely on the pretext of combating terrorism. Similar practices exist in a number of Central Asian states.

Considering aforesaid, we call the Russian authorities to:

• immediately stop torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Penza, Saint-Petersburg and in all Russian pre-trial detention facilities;
• stop the practice of intimidating relatives and friends of the accused;
• initiate an immediate, thorough, objective, and independent investigation of the reported tortures and degrading treatment of the detainees, and bring perpetrators to justice;
• issue invitations to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and other UN relative thematic procedures, to the CoE Committee for the Prevention of Torture, and to representatives of the OSCE ODIHR, to visit Russia and to ensure their unhindered access to detainees and prisoners in full compliance with the mandates of these institutions.

We call on the Russian media and Russian citizens to:

• openly express absolute intolerance to torture and humiliation of human dignity used by the representatives of special services and other law enforcement agencies;
• keep in focus and not weaken public attention to the investigation of already known cases of torture by representatives of special services and law enforcement agencies;
• not encourage, with indifference and inattention to this topic, total impunity and complete loose hands attitude of special services in torturing people.

We call the international community to:

• publicly condemn the actions of the representatives of Russian special services involved in torture;
• demand from the Russian authorities a thorough, impartial, and independent investigation of torture with further bringing to justice all those accountable;
• closely monitor the situation in order to prevent the development of this disturbing practice of using the fight against terrorism to suppress independent voices in Russia, and to immediately respond to new cases of violation of fundamental rights and freedoms and the persecution of civil activists.

We call on the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism to:

• consider as a priority, under urgent appeals procedure, reports of torture of anti-fascist activists accused of terrorism and, as a result, send a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry demanding that the state ensures the physical and mental safety of the accused;
• request an invitation from the Russian Federation to visit the country within the framework of its mandate

We call on the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture to:

• carefully examine reports of torture against anti-fascist movement activists, assess them and consider conducting an extraordinary visit to Russia to investigate the case, and visit the defendants in the pre-trial detention facilities to develop a report.

We call the UN member-states to:

• draw attention to this case, address relevant questions to the Russian Federation delegation when reviewing the human rights situation in Russia under the Universal Periodic Report procedure in May 2018.

We call the OSCE member-states to:

• closely monitor the development of this case, demand from Russia to stop the practice of torture and other human rights violations against the accused, bringing to justice all those responsible for human rights violations.

We call the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to:

• consider establishing a monitoring group, within the procedure of monitoring trial processes, to observe these trials and include ODIHR's torture program representative in the monitoring group.

We call the OSCE Chairmanship and OSCE General Secretary to:

• Provide political support and facilitate the dialogue on the establishment of a monitoring group to observe these trials.
  

  [1] "Just get it, FSB officers always achieve their goals!". Antifascist Victor Filinkov talks about the first 24 hours after his arrest. Media Zone, February 21, 2018, https://zona.media/article/2018/02/21/filin. Conclusion of the POC working group on appeals of torture in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and Leningrad, the site of the Public Observation Commission for St. Petersburg, February 4, 2018, http://onkspb.ru/posts/32-zaklyuchenie-rabochei-gruppy-onk-po -obraschenijam-o-pytkah-v-ufsb-rf-po-spb-i-lo.html. "I felt a pulse on my neck and controlled my condition." Arrested in Penza antifascists told about torture by electric shock in the cellar of the pre-trial detention center. Media Zone, February 9, 2018, https://zona.media/article/2018/02/09/penza-tortures.
  To read the full statement, please click here.