| Group beatings of Ufa resident Mansur Sharipov accused of extremism by officers of the Ufa remand prison will incur no legal consequences for them. Having checked the fact of violent treatment, the Leninsky Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee for Bashkiria has concluded that the use of special devices in respect of the remand prison inmate was lawful and did not amount to excess of powers, and thus,they have not found corpus delicti in the actions of the Ufa remand prison personnel. We have learnt that the Leninsky Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee for Ufa has not found elements of crime in the actions of the Ufa remand prison staff who, according to the applicant, ill-treated him with the use of special devices in September. Investigator Salavat Yakupov has concluded that the detainee was lawfully beaten with rubber clubs, and there was no excess of powers.Mansur Sharipov, post-graduate student of the Bashkirian State University, son of People’s Artist of Tatarstan and Honoured Artist of Bashkortostan Marat Sharipov, is charged with participation in extremist activities and has been placed on remand by the Federal Security Service Directorate for Bashkiria. The investigation considers him an activist of Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, terrorist organization banned in Russia. However, Mansur’s mother claims that “the only guilt of her son charged with involvement in extremist activities is that he opposed massive persecution of his coreligionists which took place on March 25 this year in the Bashkirian capital.” “That day several hundreds of youngsters gathered in the central square of Ufa for a picket demanding to stop persecution of Muslims not just in the Republic, but in other Russian regions as well. Among other things, there was a slogan for release of Aydar Khabibullin, Sad publishing House director, arrested in Moscow”, – explained Venera Sharipova. “My son made a speech using a public-address system which constituted an administrative violation in the context of the picket. On April 6, the authorities came to search our home, the home of his parents, although our son has not lived with us for a long time. At the same time, there was a search at the flat he rented and where he lived with his wife and child. They found the so-called prohibited literature, audio and video materials among his things.”In his application to the Prosecutor’s Office, Mansur stated that on September 8 he had been cruelly beaten with rubber clubs. The young man alleges that by means of violence the authorities tried to make him withdraw his complaints from the Prosecutor’s Office. The beatings resulted in numerous injuries. According to Sharipov, the order to use special devices was personally given by remand prison head Anton Talalov. The detainee claims that the beatings were divided into three stages, they were witnessed by 10-15 remand prison employees, and the whole process was not recorded, as video cameras were covered with paper. Besides, Sharipov maintains that he was threatened with rape. After that, as we can infer from the materials of the check, Mr. Sharipov signed a statement that “he himself had attacked a remand prison worker”. When the victim’s mother asked to organize a doctor’s visit for her son, she was refused point blank. Photo: Mansur Sharipov’s injuries | |
| “I guess that it is remand prison head Vladimir Talalov who opposes any involvement trying to escape liability”, – says Venera Sharipova.A week after the incident Mansur was visited by members of the Public Monitoring Commission for supervision of human rights observance in detention facilities and prisons in the Republic of Bashkiria. They documented “injuries on the head, neck, shoulders, wrists” mentioning that “the area below the waist was a total big bruise ranging from dark purple to brown, especially in the rear part of the body”. The PMC has qualified such actions of the remand prison staff as tortures.In his interview to Kommersant chairman of the regional office of the Movement “For Human Rights” Leonid Chernov called the decision of the Investigation Committee not to instigate criminal proceedings “outrageous”: “Sharipov’s case is not the only incident in the Ufa remand prison. The pictures demonstrate that there is no correlation between testimonies of remand prison officers and visible consequences of their actions”. Chernov also mentioned that the Movement will provide Sharipov legal support, among other things, “to prevent law enforcement authorities from covering each other’s backs”. The local office of the Interregional Committee Against Torture has also started a public investigation.“Sharipov’s version looks more convincing than the law enforcers’ one. The more so, Sharipov’s injuries shot by his lawyer confirm that he was beaten”, – remarked CAT’s lawyer in Ufa Anton Fadeyev. “At the moment we are checking data to be able to give a final assessment of the remand prison staff’s actions.” |
News
16 November 2011