Presidential Human Rights Council to present report on situation surrounding activist Dadin at Karelia penitentiary
MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) - The Russian presidential Human Rights Council plans to present a report to the president after visiting a penitentiary in Karelia where activist Ildar Dadin is held, Human Rights Council head Mikhail Fedotov said.
"We have familiarized the Federal Penitentiary Service [with the report] and now we want to familiarize the country's leadership with it, after which we will publish it," Fedotov told journalists.
He said he planned to present the report during his personal meeting with Putin. "I hope it will take place in December," he said.
The Human Rights Council members intend to visit the penitentiary where Dadin is held again in the near future, he said.
Dadin has been the first and so far the only person in Russia sentenced for repeated violation of the established order of organizing or holding a rally, parade, procession or picket after a new edition of Russian Criminal Code Article 212.1 took effect in the summer of 2014.
Moscow's Basmanny District Court found Dadin guilty of repeated violation of the law on rallies and sentenced him to three years in a penal colony on December 7, 2015. The Moscow City Court later reduced his sentence by six months.
Dadin's wife Anastasia Zotova said on Facebook with reference to Dadin's lawyer on November 1, 2016 that penitentiary administration officials had beaten and tortured her husband and threatened to kill him.
The Federal Penitentiary Service reported on November 3 that Dadin's examination at a Petrozavodsk hospital had not revealed any injuries that could have resulted from being tortured at the penitentiary.
The Federal Penitentiary Service allowed two members of the Human Rights Council, Igor Kalyapin and Pavel Chikov, to visit the penitentiary, which they did on November 7 and 8. Kalyapin told Interfax after the visit that Dadin's claims looked true.
Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova proposed transferring Dadin to a different penitentiary, "closer to his family." However, she said the Federal Penitentiary Service had not made a decision on Dadin's transfer yet.
The Investigative Committee department for Karelia told Interfax an inquiry into Dadin's complaints could last until the end of November.
The Federal Penitentiary Service's department for Karelia reported on its website on Thursday that Dadin had fought with his cellmate and was isolated from other inmates.