Public Verdict asks Moskalkova to help find public defender for Yevgeny Makarov's lawyer
MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax) - The Public Verdict foundation has asked the Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova to find a public defender for the lawyer Irina Biryukova, who left Russia after a video footage was published of her client Yevgeny Makarov being tortured in a prison in Yaroslavl.
"There is still no answer to Irina BIryukova's repeated requests for the Russian Investigative Committee to provide her with public defense. Her complaint to the Prosecutor General's Office about the Committee's inaction also remained unanswered. Biryukova had to leave the country due to threats," Public Verdict stated on Saturday.
The foundation also asked the commissioner to help with its inquiry into Makarov's torture.
"In June 2017, shortly after the beating of Makarov in the 'correctional' room, Tatyana Moskalkova and Sergei Baburkin, the Yaroslavl regional ombudsman, visited the prison N1 and Yevgeny Makarov. The foundation asks Tatyana Moskalkova to forward to the investigative body the statements and requests that were made by the human rights commissioners and possible answers to them from the oversight agencies," the statement said.
Earlier on Saturday Biryukova told Interfax that Makarov was provided with a public defender after he was formally acknowledged as a victim in a criminal case over abuse of authority against the prison staff.
Biryukova said that she had asked the investigator to question Moskalkova, the Yaroslavl ombudsman Sergei Baburkin and a several former and current high-ranking local penitentiary officials.
Earlier the Novaya Gazeta newspaper published a video showing a handcuffed inmate being beaten at the Yaroslavl prison N1 last summer. The incident occurred on June 29, 2017.
The publication, which was leaked to the press by Makarov's lawyer Biryukova, prompted a public outcry. Investigators launched a criminal inquiry into abuse of authority (Article 286 part three of the criminal Code) and arrested 12 people, including the prison's deputy head. The Investigative Committee's central office took over the inquiry.