Ildar Dading again found. The whereabouts of the Russian opposition, which “for numerous violations of the” law on meetings and rallies in December 2015, was sentenced to three years in prison (after the appeal the sentence was reduced to two and a half years), was not known for more than a month. 8 Jan wife Dading Anastasia Zotova reported that he is in prison No. 5 in the Altai region, and, according to him, he is healthy. She said that she was able to speak briefly with him on the phone. Nothing more. For 37 days close Dading remained in the dark about where he was sent out of the colony № 7 in Segezha, Karelian. “Physically Ildar feels good, but emotionally he’s worried about people left in the colony in Karelia,” — said Zotov.
Because last fall, in his letter in which he told about torture in the Karelian colony (where part of his decade of imprisonment held and Mikhail Khodorkovsky), Dading drew attention to the abuses which in Russia has long known, but rarely mentioned, including the fact that the people who raise the topic are considered “foreign agents”. Dading has acquired universal fame thanks to his participation in protests against such a situation in Russia. His case represents not only torture, which are practiced in the Russian colonies, but also political persecution.
Dading is one of a total of 102 political prisoners, was in the human rights centre “memorial” at the end of October last year. This figure exceeds last year’s by more than half. By the way, the “memorial” is also considered a “foreign agent”.
34-year-old Dading repeatedly went on protest rallies in Central Moscow, advocating for the rights of political prisoners, sexual minorities, and against the war in Ukraine. Participation in total, four such unauthorized actions in 2014, he was sentenced to imprisonment. In the process, the evidence against him gave even his own father. According to him, he no longer communicates with his son, because Russia was “lucky” that she has such a President as Putin.
Dading became the first activist in Russia, convicted in accordance with the tightened in the summer of 2014 by the law: since for violation “more than two times within 180 days” threaten till five years of imprisonment. This law became one of the most effective measures, forcing the Russians to withdraw from participation in the demonstrations, despite the fact that the Constitution provides for freedom of Assembly. If someone, like Dadina, wants to go out on picket, he is not obliged to agree to this step, in contrast to demonstrations that should be sanctioned by the authorities.
However, this does not prevent law enforcement agencies to detain participants of single stocks. In the case of Davnym beside him stood a few provocateurs, and thus picket, from the point of view of the law, turned into an unauthorized demonstration. “Demonstrators” arrested, but the instigators were soon released, but against the Dading was a criminal case. “Keep silent — when tomorrow will come for you, silent the next,” wrote Dading on his poster.
In the fall of 2016 Dading wrote his wife a letter that has become a cry for help — it was smuggled out of the colony by his lawyer. There, he said, operates “a mafia”, starting from the head of the colony through to the doctor. He immediately upon arrival slipped two razor blades, then put in solitary confinement. In protest he started a hunger strike, and then beat him 10 or 12 people. The next day, the guards handcuffed him and hung on them, and stripped and threatened with rape if he did not stop the hunger strike, and dipped his head into the toilet. “If you’re gonna complain, you will be killed and thrown over the fence”, — said the head of the colony. Further, according to Dading, it several times a day beaten.
Russian correctional institutions are usually located in remote and inaccessible regions. The content is unsatisfactory. There are widespread cases of violence, but it is almost impossible to prove. In addition, the communication of prisoners with the outside world extremely difficult. The system of camps in which, as of December 2016, provided more than 630 thousand people, is, in fact, a “state within a state” in which there are rules, dominated by tyranny and violence. That is what Dading with the help of his friends and people supporting it, drew attention.
In support of it was made by human rights defenders and journalists, and in front of the Federal penitentiary service in Moscow brought together dozens of people to the demonstration. Some call the Dading “new” Magnitsky, the lawyer who exposed the fraudulent business schemes of government officials, died in 2009 from the effects of torture in a Moscow detention centers.
This story has caused such a powerful resonance that Putin’s press Secretary announced that the President informed about the case Dading. But Putin’s Commissioner for human rights Tatyana Moskalkova, made on state television with the initiative to translate the Dading in another colony. The European court of human rights has also defended the Dading, and on 24 January, the Russian constitutional court should make a decision to toughen the law, which was condemned Dading.
Thus, it appears that the case Dading is one of many, but at the same time not quite typical. Including taking into account the personality of the prisoner: on Tuesday, the Altai regional Commission on human rights reported that the Dading in the letter expressed the wish that he was back in the Karelian colony, because its presence there will raise public interest in the conditions in which detainees were held, in connection with which their situation could improve.
