A scandal over severe torture and rape in prisons is currently shaking Russia. Alexei Navalny is arguably protected from obvious physical abuse by his celebrity status. But fellow inmates report enormous psychological terror.
For six months the most famous political prisoner in Russia has been in a prison that has been decried as the most brutal institution in the country. Alexei Navalny has to serve his sentence in prison colony No. 2 in the Vladimir region – called IK 2 or Pokrovskaya Colony for short. Former inmates report psychological torture, physical abuse and the strictest regime that determine life in IK 2.
“I couldn’t imagine that it would be possible to build a real concentration camp just 100 kilometers from Moscow,” wrote Navalny shortly after he was transferred to the dreaded detention center. “Education through dehumanization” is the motto here. At the time, he dictated to his lawyers that he had not yet experienced any use of violence. But “due to the tense posture of the convicts, who are afraid of even turning their heads, I like to believe the stories that here in IK 2 until recently people were beaten almost to death with wooden hammers”. Instead, psychological terror prevails.
Handpicked department
Nariman Osmanov and Evgeny Burak were involved in establishing a regime of psychological terror for Navalny – involuntarily. They were held together with the prominent inmate and were forced to participate in the harassment. In one of them they reported the methods with which the leadership of the colony tried to break the opposition politician.
According to this, the prisoners who were to sit in the department of IK 2 together with Navalny were selected by hand. All had received precise instructions before the opponent’s arrival in the Kremlin. Everyone was forbidden to talk to him. “He was completely isolated. And of course we suffered with him. To be honest, I still haven’t mentally recovered from it,” Omanov said.
He himself came to Russia from Azerbaijan in 2015, spent a year and a half in IK 2 and didn’t even know who Navalny was. Which may be one of the reasons why he was chosen.
“On the first day when we sat down in the kitchen for tea, he wanted to ask me something. I kicked him under the table and said he shouldn’t do that. Later he came up to me and asked where there was one Safe place. On the sports field, I replied. Where you can do pull-ups, “said the former prisoner.
Navalny apparently took this advice to heart. Over the past six months, Russian state television has repeatedly demonstrated footage from surveillance cameras in prison. They showed the 45-year-old walking back and forth on the sports field. The Kremlin propagandists sold the recordings as evidence of Navalny’s well-being in custody. In truth, the small courtyard is one of the few places in the detention center where you are relatively safe from physical assault.
“You are sitting on the toilet bowl, he is crouching in front of you”
In addition to being completely isolated, Navalny is also subject to strict surveillance. “He is surrounded by 20 people who document every word he says,” said former inmate Nawalnys Burak. “He can’t make a single move without someone knowing.”
In practice it looks like this: “He gets up, just wants to stretch his legs, someone lines up in front of him, someone behind him. You are playing with his psyche. He sits down, you sit around him. ” Every word is noted down and handed over to the prison administration in the evening.
Osmanov confirmed these descriptions: “Even the toilet doors are left open. But one of these observers is always present on the toilet anyway. You sit, he stands. You sit on the toilet bowl, he crouches in front of you. One meter away.”
Sausage and tuberculosis sufferers against hunger strike
When Navalny went on a hunger strike in April, prison officials resorted to elaborate methods. “At six or seven in the morning, the caretakers brought half a sack of sausages, set up pans and fried them so that there was a smell of them all over the place,” said Osmanov.
When the hunger strike continued in spite of the seduction attempts, it was said that the person living next to Navalny was suffering from tuberculosis – in a highly contagious form. “They gave him rags. He should use them to clean every crack so as not to get infected.” Osmanov had succeeded in betraying Navalny that the whole thing was a production. “The man has never seen such wickedness. Especially since he was starving on the 13th or 15th day and was very weak. […] Then he slowly came to his senses. He noticed that this was a game again, “recalled the former prisoner.
Smear film against Alexej Navalny
Navalny held out the hunger strike for three weeks despite the harassment. When he subsequently needed hospital treatment, the prison authorities used the time to devise a new method to humiliate him. A hastily cobbled together film was shown throughout the colony in which the opposition politician is denigrated as a homosexual. Osmanov and Burak reported this unanimously.
In the film, “he greets someone and then sex scenes between men are shown and claims that they are his employees,” said Osmanov, explaining the design of the work. Homophobia is still deeply anchored in Russian society and such accusations can be extremely dangerous, especially in prisons.
A “rooster” for sleepless nights
Another method that is widely used in Russian prisons is sleep deprivation. According to Osmanov, he was not allowed to sleep in the first three days after Navalny’s return from the hospital. A so-called rooster was placed on the bed next to the opposition politician – a term given to men who belong to the lowest caste in the prison hierarchy. His job is to get on Navalny’s nerves. “He makes different noises. Or starts to masturbate. He burps and spits all night long so you don’t fall asleep,” said Osmanov. The prison administration has a single goal: “to break all who disobey.”
Poisoned first, then convicted
The 45-year-old Kremlin critic survived an assassination attempt with the neurotoxin Novichok last summer. Navalny blames the Kremlin for the attack. He was arrested in Russia earlier this year and sentenced to more than two years in a camp for alleged parole violations. The judgment of the Russian court is criticized as politically motivated. The EU Parliament demands his immediate release. Numerous human rights defenders and activists have fled Russia since Navalny’s conviction early last year.
Source From: Stern
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