On March 22, the Yaroslavl department of Federal Prison Service press office denied the evidence of beating Ruslan Vakhapov who is under the European Court of Human Rights protection.
“Following the evidence appeared in mass media about the alleged bating of a prisoner, we claim that this information is misleading”, reported press office. “Physical power or special means were not used towards the prisoner, his interview and medical examination are recorded on video. He did not provide us any complaints concerning his state of health”.
According to Anna Chastukhina, the spokesperson of Yaroslavl department of Federal Prison Service, the video depicting the examination and interview of Vakhapov is only for internal use.
The lawyer of Public Verdict Foundation Irina Biryukova said that they will send a legal representative to their defendant Vakhapov in order to get to the bottom of that.
According to Public Verdict information, Ruslan Vakhapov was beaten in Yaroslavl remand fascility n.1 while being escorted to Rybinsk hospital.
Vakhapov was a cellmate of Ivan Nepomnyashchikh, who was involved in the Bolotnaya case. They were beaten in April 2017 during the raid in the Yaroslavl penal colony n.1. After that incident the European Court of Human Rights implemented emergency measures to protect that prisoners demanding to let the human right defenders and medical personnel to visit them. In summer 2017, Ivan Nepomnyashchikh was released, and he emigrated from Russia.
