Week-ending 12 March 2021
This week the Supreme Court of Yakutia upheld the compulsory confinement in a psychiatric clinic of Aleksandr Gabyshev, a shaman from Siberia who has tried on several occasions to walk to Moscow in order to drive President Putin from the Kremlin. In June 2020, responding tothe news of Gabyshev’s confinement in a psychiatric hospital, Memorial Human Rights Centre classified Gabyshev as a political prisoner. An Amnesty International spokesperson said: “Following weeks of intensive police surveillance, Aleksandr Gabyshev was forcibly taken from his home where he was self-isolating, to a psychiatric hospital by a riot squad. When he demanded to be freed, he was pronounced to be ‘a danger to himself and others’, and now the court has sanctioned his confinement in the hospital based on a ‘medical’ opinion the conclusions of which are based on his political views.”
RFE/RL, 11 March 2021: The Supreme Court of Russia’s Yakutia region has ruled that the forced confinement to a psychiatric clinic of a shaman who tried several times to march to Moscow on foot “to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin” was legal. Olga Timofeyeva, a lawyer for Aleksandr Gabyshev, told RFE/RL on March 11 that the court rejected her client’s request for an independent expert to be present at the hearing to assess the medical conclusion on his placement in the clinic. Timofeyeva also said that the court rejected a motion to evaluate Gabyshev by medical and psychiatric experts in any other region of Russia.
Memorial Human Rights Centre, 25 June 2020: Memorial Human Rights Centre considers Aleksandr Gabyshev a political prisoner, in line with international guidelines defining this term. He has been imprisoned solely for his political and religious beliefs, and also on account of his non-violent exercise of the rights to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and freedom of conscience and religion. We call for his immediate and unconditional release and for his full rehabilitation with compensation for the harm caused to him.
Amnesty International, 2 June 2020: Responding to today’s court decision according to which Aleksandr Gabyshev, a Siberian shaman who vowed last year “to purge” President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin, will remain confined to a psychiatric hospital, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “Following weeks of intensive police surveillance, Aleksandr Gabyshev was forcibly taken from his home where he was self-isolating, to a psychiatric hospital by a riot squad. When he demanded to be freed, he was pronounced to be ‘a danger to himself and others’, and now the court has sanctioned his confinement in the hospital based on a ‘medical’ opinion the conclusions of which are based on his political views. “Aleksandr Gabyshev has been made an enemy of the state solely for voicing his dislike of Putin and his dramatic journey by foot from his home in Siberia to Moscow, halted by police after he spoke of ‘purging’ the president from office using his shamanic powers. “By co-opting first the police and now the psychiatric system to do their bidding, the Russian authorities have revealed the astonishing lengths they will go to repress critics. This is wholly unacceptable, and Aleksandr Gabyshev must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
