The security forces were afraid of checking the escort premises of the courts

On Wednesday, November 15, the working group of the State Duma discussed amendments to the law on public control over places of detention. The proposal to add escort premises to the list of places checked by human rights activists … was rejected. Reasons? Negative feedback from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB.

From the prisoners’ complaints: “It was in the convoy premises of the court. The police kicked me severely. One hit his head on a bench.

“I spent more than 7 hours in the convoy, without food and water, suffocating from lack of air.”

“I was put in a convoy courtroom with a mentally ill woman who took out a blade and began to cut her hands.”

“I was handcuffed to a ring that was built into the wall.”

“In recent years, we have investigated several appeals from people who were tortured in convoy premises,” says Georgy Ivanov, a former member of the PMC of Moscow (he was not included in the new composition). – In one case, a woman was chained to rings in the wall (photo available in the editorial – approx. Auth.) in the room for familiarization with the case materials. She lost consciousness. Plus she was covered in water.

We drew up an act, and the Moscow City Court did not deny the presence of the rings, but did not agree that the woman had suffered significant bodily and moral suffering.

We have several photos of chained people from the escort premises, but these stories are still being investigated. There was a case when a man was severely beaten in a district court. The convoy threatened, he said, to burn his beard.

“We noticed that it is in those places where the hand of public control does not reach that the most outrageous things happen,” says Igor Kalyapin, the main fighter against torture in the country, a member of the Human Rights Council. – You can scold the temporary detention center and pre-trial detention center as much as you like, but what was there for 20 years, and what is now is just heaven and earth.

But the convoy premises turned into dungeons. People who have been there say things that make your hair stand on end. How are these spaces different from others? Only one – that it is impossible for public controllers to get there.

Olga Timofeeva, chairwoman of the State Duma Committee on Public and Religious Associations, said at a meeting of the working group that convoy premises are not a place of detention, since a person is kept there for a short time. That’s what they wrote in the review. But allow me, firstly, people can be kept in “escorts” for several hours, and secondly, are they there voluntarily? And even if a person sits there for only 2-3 hours, does this mean that he should suffer?

The most frequent appeals: the convoy does not take you to the toilet on demand, does not give boiling water (to brew dry rations), there is not enough space.

A classic example is a lawsuit to the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk from a prisoner named Gershman. He writes that he was repeatedly brought to the Kirovsky District Court of the same city, where he was kept in a convoy building, the conditions of stay in which do not meet the requirements. Namely: no windows, dim lamps, stale air, no seating for all prisoners, no places to eat, no free access to drinking water, going to the toilet at a certain time.

Unfortunately, his claim was denied. It would probably be strange to wait for a different decision from the court of Krasnoyarsk on the complaint against the court of the same Krasnoyarsk.

At a meeting in the State Duma, it became clear that it is the security forces, especially the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who are categorically against checking the convoy premises by the PMC (I remind you that the police convoy regiment guards the prisoners there).

Representative of the Russian Interior Ministry Oleg Izvozchikov spoke about two cases of attacks by prisoners on guards in courts (doesn’t this happen in pre-trial detention centers and colonies? And then, what do human rights activists have to do with it).

He then said that the trials of war criminals would probably begin soon, and there would be many of them in the escort premises. We asked a reasonable question – so what? Does this mean that people can be tortured in convoy premises? And if such cases really are considered by the court, won’t the attention of the public be riveted to them, and isn’t order in the “escorts” needed with redoubled energy? Much in the explanations of the security forces boiled down to the fact that now is “not the time” to check the escort premises.

Deputy Minister of Justice Andrei Loginov did not support the amendments. According to him, a person in a convoy building should … focus on the future process, and human rights activists will interfere with him, asking if there was enough warm water when he brushed his teeth in the morning.

Oh, Andrey Viktorovich, you have a very vague idea of ​​the work of members of the PMC and the conditions in which people are kept behind bars. However, Loginov suggested a way out: to apply to the Judicial Department under the Armed Forces with a request to install video cameras in all convoy premises. The idea, perhaps, is not bad, but I will immediately notice that this will require a lot of money and a lot of time.

The HRC (the author of these lines), the oldest human rights activist Valentin Gefter and the deputy Ksenia Goryacheva, “fought” for the amendments. The representative of the General Prosecutor’s Office spoke out carefully, admitting that they have complaints about the escort premises.

– We do not support, – summed up the head of the committee of the State Duma.

The participants of the meeting did not support all the amendments that would make it possible to make admission to the PMC transparent. It was proposed that candidates would indicate in the public space the experience of their human rights activities, the organization that nominated them, etc. In addition, the scoring of candidates was proposed to be public (now you can get the results in essence only through the courts). Alas, it’s all useless.

“In the end, everything is logical: there is no one to check, and there is nothing to check,” one of the participants in the meeting bitterly joked.