Human rights activists of the First Section project published a video of torture of Yevgeny Chistov, convicted of treason. The video was filmed two years ago on the video recorder of one of the employees of IK-5 in Mordovia. Evgeny said that the video contains employees with the names Vilyaykin, Manushkin, Gorlanov and Salikov.
On May 26, 2021, they demanded that Chistov move from his cell to another – to a person whom Chistov considered mentally unbalanced (he was repeatedly taken to a psychiatric hospital) and with whom he had a conflict. Chistov refused, considering it a mockery. After that, they began to break his arms and beat him, according to the report of the First Department.
“There were four cases when physical force was used against me,” Chistov said. – Special means (gas) were used twice, they also tried to drive me to suicide (there was a scar on my arm). I accuse the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee of covering up torture, as well as inaction when addressing them with allegations of bullying. My wife also applied to the PMC of Mordovia twice, but she also received a false reply that “everything is fine.”
Chistov also noted that both he and his wife and mother repeatedly wrote complaints to the head of IK-5 Valery Trofimov, the prosecutor for overseeing the observance of laws in correctional institutions Viktor Isaikin, and the head of the UFSIN of Mordovia Leonid Mustaikin – but there was no response from them.
Chistov was sentenced in 2015 for treason – being a policeman at that time, he allegedly passed secret information about the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments of the Russian Federation to the American CIA.
The “First Section” emphasizes that the torture of suspects, accused and convicted under Art. 275, is the norm for the security forces. The day before, on June 15, it became known about the death of activist Anatoly Berezikov. For the past month, he has been constantly kept in special detention centers, starting new cases. Berezikov told the lawyer that he had been tortured with a stun gun and showed the corresponding marks on his skin.
After his death, the special detention center stated that Berezikov "committed suicide." Shortly before his death, he himself told a lawyer that because of torture he was afraid not to live until June 15 – the day when he was supposed to leave the special detention center again.