Today, on 20 May 2015 about ten officers of the Department of the Federal Migration Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region arrived to Ibis hotel (Nizhny Novgorod) where a training session for human rights defenders and psychologists is being conducted, organized by Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY) and INGO «The Committee Against Torture». Without specifying their accusations, the officers of the Department of the Federal Migration Service requested that our European colleagues follow them to the Department. After an hour of discussing the reasons for such a request lawyer Petr Zaikin arrived at the scene, who together with the members of the Committee Against Torture and European human rights defenders Department of the Federal Migration Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The training session organized by Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY) and INGO «The Committee Against Torture», was aimed at studying the work of the Public Monitoring Commissions and the European Committee for Prevention of Torture. In the course of the even psychologist of Danish Institute Against Torture Uwe Arthur Harlacher planned to discuss with his Russian colleagues issues of complex rehabilitation of torture victims with most common symptoms. 

Press-secretary of the Committee Against Torture who was present at the training session, comments: «Yesterday the first day of the event was a success. However, today around ten officers of the Department of the Federal Migration Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region arrived at the hotel and asked the lecturers of Danish Institute firstly, to show their IDs, and then to follow them to the Department. At first, one of the officers named «committing a legal offense» as a reason, but then his colleague corrected him, saying that there were grounds to suspect a legal offense, but he did not name them. Then, as a justification of the necessity of taking our colleagues to the Department a new version was mentioned – allegedly, in order to draw up a report it was necessary to check with certain electronic database, available only from there. As a result, lawyer Petr Zaikin arrived at the scene, who together with the members of the Committee Against Torture and European human rights defenders Department of the Federal Migration Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region».