Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
59
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
exercise of his right to
freedom of expression, and his
involvement in human rights activities on behalf of
victims of the armed conflict in Chechnya, and
adopted him as a prisoner of conscience. The
organization called on the Russian authorities to
immediately release him from detention and to
provide information about his whereabouts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson
claimed on 19 June that Dik Altemirov had never been
detained and that he was at his home in Grozny.
Owing to the difficulty of gaining access to the
Chechen capital, Dik Altemirov’s fate remained
unknown until early July, when a member of the
Russian human rights organisation Memorial
managed to speak to him and learnt that he had been
released approximately two days after his detention.
He had first been taken to a military unit in Grozny
and then moved to a place of detention run by Ministry
of Interior troops. Dik Altemirov said he had been
treated well, and that he believed this was because of
the inquiries and letters of support which were sent to
the Russian authorities after he was detained.
During the previous armed conflict in Chechnya
in 1994-1996, Dik Altemirov was the chairman of the
Assembly
of
Public
Political
Parties
and
Organizations of the Chechen Republic, a non-
governmental organization campaigning for the
preservation of the independent status of Chechnya
through peaceful means, and for an end to the armed
conflict. More recently he had supported the work of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) assistance group in Grozny, and
provided information and support to members of the
human rights group Memorial. Dik Altemirov is also
known to oppose the violence used by armed Chechen
groups.
Possible Prisoner of Conscience
The case of Olga Kitova
Ill-treatment and persecution of an independent
journalist.
At the end of June Olga Kitova, an investigative
journalist on the newspaper
Belgorodskaya Pravda,
faced
detention
and
possible
imprisonment,
apparently because of newspaper articles in which she
alleged official corruption.
Olga Kitova was first detained on 21 March, when
she was reportedly beaten by the ten officers who
came to take her from her home to the local
procurator’s office. At City Hospital No.1, where she
was treated later that day for high blood pressure,
bruises and other injuries to the head and arms were
noted. She remained in hospital until 24 March. The
police said she had been detained because she had
failed to respond to a summons for questioning under
articles of the criminal code which relate to
interference in a criminal investigation or prosecution,
slander, and defamation. The summons related to a
series of pieces Olga Kitova had written about the
handling of a rape case. Olga Kitova says that she had
sent a written explanation that she was protected by
immunity as a member of the Belgorod regional
parliament
On 22 May Olga Kitova was again arrested at her
apartment. While in a temporary holding isolator
(IVS) in the district police station, despite reportedly
suffering a heart attack, she was pronounced fit for
transfer to the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). When
she arrived at the SIZO, however, the duty doctor
refused to accept her and she was taken to City
Hospital No.1. On 24 May, while still in hospital, Olga
Kitova was charged with the original alleged offences,
and with further offences of insulting and using force
against, or threatening, an official. On 28 May the
Western District Court in Belgorod ruled that the
arrest of Olga Kitova was unlawful on procedural
grounds, and the guards left her bedside. She remained
in hospital until 8 June.
An appeal by the procurator’s office against the
Western District Court’s decision was heard in
Belgorod Regional Court on 27 June and was
successful. In July Belgorod Regional parliament
voted in favour of lifting Olga Kitova’s parliamentary
immunity in relation to the five charges brought
against her. Olga Kitova thus faced the possibility of
further detention and imprisonment, apparently for
legitimately exercising her fundamental right to
freedom of expression.
Alleged politically motivated killings
The case of Galina Starovoitova
(Update to AI Index: EUR 01/03/00)
In May law enforcement officials in the Ukrainian city
of Dnepropetrovsk detained five people suspected of
carrying out murders in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine,
including the murder of leading human rights defender
and politician Galina Starovoitova and the Russian
journalist Vladislav Listyev. All the suspects were
reported to be local residents, who officially worked
at private security firms and received their orders
through the Internet. The criminal group allegedly
began work in 1996 in Russia, with businessmen as
their main victims. However, there appeared to be
insufficient evidence to connect the suspects to the
murders
of
Vladislav
Listyev
and
Galina
Starovoitova.
Conditions of detention
Conditions in penitentiaries and pre-trial detention
centres, which held up to a million people, did not
improve and continued to amount to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment. Hundreds of thousands of people
awaiting trial continued to be held in grossly
overcrowded conditions. It was reported that nearly
five million people enter and leave the prison system
annually; over 10,000 inmates die annually; and over
100,000 have tuberculosis.
In April the Russian human rights commissioner,
Oleg Mironov stated in his annual report on the human
rights situation in the country that the prison situation
was "horrible". He noted that pre-trial detention