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| Russian human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin / Photo: Kirill Kallinikov, Moscow News Picture Agency |
Russian Human Rights Commissioner, Vladimir
Lukin, sent telegrams to the Prosecutor General, Minister of Justice
and Prosecutor of Chelyabinsk region in Urals, calling on them to investigate
the situation in local prisons. He wrote that, according to the information
of human rights activists, prisoners had been holding protest actions owing
to cuts in food supplies and a toughening of
custody regime.
Some prisoners refuse to eat and even attempt suicide. Lukin asked for
"urgent measures" to be taken if this information is confirmed,
Interfax news agency quoted his telegrams. "All this causes deep
concern, especially since this is not the first case of such actions."
Lukin recalled that he would wait to obtain an answer for his request,
in five days, according to the law.
The requests to investigate the situation in the prisons of Chelyabinsk
and Irkutsk (Eastern Siberia) regions were sent to the prosecutor general,
chief penal directorate and HR ombudsman from the movement "For Human
Rights" and International Helsinki Federation. The leader of the
movement, Lev Ponomaryov was quoted by the agency as saying that since
April 20, protest
actions had been held in the prisons of Chelyabinsk and Irkutsk regions.
He mentioned that prisoners "wounded themselves in the throat and
abdominal cavity."
These protest actions have stopped, Ponomaryov was quoted by the agency
as saying.
See also:
Human
Rights
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