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Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
Amnesty International September 2001
centres had become "hotbeds of epidemics" and that
some judges "continue to be guided by the categories
of the past", which fuelled overcrowding and
exacerbated the conditions of detention in Russia’s
prisons. Oleg Mironov cited as an example a case
where a man was sentenced to four years’
imprisonment for stealing two chickens.
There is no separate juvenile justice system in
Russia, and the situation of juvenile detainees
remained particularly bad. In June officials from the
Main Directorate for Execution of Punishment
(GUIN) at the Ministry of Justice stated that over
17,000 sentenced juveniles were currently imprisoned
in 64 special colonies for adolescents. According to
official information, 10 colonies had recently opened
in former army and Interior Troops barracks which
had been transferred to the Ministry of Justice’s
jurisdiction. Officials also stated that 55 per cent of
juveniles in the prison system had been convicted of
theft and 10 per cent of robbery, which under Russian
law is punishable by five to six years’ imprisonment.
During the period in question AI was alarmed by
President Vladimir Putin's refusal to grant clemency
to prisoners in Russia and, in this way, help alleviate
the harsh conditions of detention in Russia's
overcrowded prisons. AI was aware of up to 3000
cases in which petitions for clemency had been
returned by the President without consideration - the
majority of these cases referred to minor crimes and
first-time offenders, including women and children.
Torture and ill-treatment in police custody
Reported rape of a lesbian by the police
Though Russian law does not penalize gay identity or
behaviour, the actions of police officers often do.
Prejudice - whether in the form of racism, sexism or
homophobia - means that certain people are
particularly vulnerable to discrimination and ill-
treatment in custody. Lesbian and gay detainees and
prisoners in Russia are at heightened risk of sexual
violence in custody. Many are subjected to persistent
sexual harassment. The failure of the authorities to
tackle issues such as sexism and homophobia in the
police force creates a climate in which such violations
can easily proliferate.
During the period under review, AI learnt of the
case of ‘Katya Ivanova’,
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a lesbian living in
Moscow, who claimed she had been raped by the
police. In 1997 she went to the local police station to
lodge a complaint against neighbours who had
assaulted and threatened her. She showed the officer
dealing with her complaint the notes her neighbours
had pushed under her door, which contained threats
and homophobic abuse. When the officer began to
sexually harass her ‘Katya Ivanova’ left.
Several months later the officer summoned her to
his office. According to ‘Katya Ivanova’, he offered
to protect her from her neighbours on condition that
she had a sexual relation with him. When she resisted
him, he reportedly beat her in the face and raped her.
Further assaults occurred on other occasions when
‘Katya Ivanova’, fearing arrest and detention for
failing to respond to summonses in relation to her
original complaint, appeared at his office and other
locations.
In May 2001 Katya Ivanova was granted asylum
in the United States. Speaking to an AI representative
in March 2001 she had said, ‘I pray that I am granted
asylum so that my nightmare can finally end.’
Alleged ill-treatment of a woman by the police in
the Republic of Kalmykia
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Not her real name
On 10 April Nadezhda Ubushaeva, a former school
teacher, was allegedly ill-treated by police in Elista,
the capital of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia. She
told an AI representative that the same morning she
and her family of five, including her pregnant
daughter, had been forcibly evicted from their home
on the orders of the Elista City Court. Having nowhere
else to go to, the family went to the main square to
peacefully protest in front of the seat of the republic’s
government.
Nadezhda Ubushaeva alleges that at 4pm that day
more than five police officers, led by a police colonel,
appeared and dragged her, in front of witnesses, to a
police car, beating her with what she describes as a
hard instrument. According to a medical certificate
issued on 13 April, Nadezhda Ubushaeva suffered
injuries to her hips, shoulders and face consistent with
these allegations. She was held in the police station for
about two hours.
Nadezhda Ubushaeva and her family are among
300 families who lost their homes in a 1995 flood in
the town of Lagan. In 1999, following a decision of
the Chairman of the Kalmykian Government,
Nadezhda Ubushaeva’s family were given housing in
an apartment building in the capital.
On 4 July Nadezhda Ubushaeva, along with two
other women conducting a hunger strike on the central
square, was reportedly again ill-treated, this time by a
group of men who emerged from a nearby unmarked
car and dragged them to a minibus. The three women
claimed that the men were law enforcement officials
who acted on orders of the local authorities. Nadezhda
Ubushaeva has complained about her ill-treatment to
the Office of the Procurator of the Republic of
Kalmykia. However, AI is not aware of any official
investigation into these allegations.
The Death Penalty
AI welcomed President Vladimir Putin's statement in
July in favour of abolition of the death penalty in the
Russian Federation. He was reported as saying that
Russia should uphold its five-year-old moratorium on
the death penalty, despite widespread calls to reinstate