Week-ending 29 October 2021
On 23 October 2021 reports said Russia has issued an arrest warrant for Syarhey Savelyeu [Sergei Savelyev], a Belarus national, who released video evidence of torture in a prison in Saratov region. The Russian authorities did not specify the crime Savelyeu is suspected of committing.
Sources:
RFE/RL, 23 October 2021: Russia has issued an arrest warrant for a former prison inmate who has admitted to releasing graphic video evidence of hundreds of cases of inmate torture by other inmates at the direction of prison officials. The Interior Ministry on October 23 issued the warrant without specifying the crime that the Belarus-born Syarhey Savelyeu is accused of.
The Moscow Times, 23 October 2021: Moscow on Saturday put a former prison inmate seeking asylum in France on a wanted list after he leaked harrowing videos of alleged rape and torture inside a Russian prison. According to a notice published on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website, Sergei Savelyev — a Belarus national — is wanted in connection with an unspecified criminal case.
In other legal cases this week:
The Moscow Times, 29 October 2021: A St. Petersburg blogger known for exploring abandoned urban and industrial sites has been sentenced to prison for spreading state secrets abroad. Investigators say Andrei Pyzh, 37, illegally obtained information relating to the design and technical features of classified facilities in the Moscow region from December 2018 until the time of his August 2020 detention.
The Moscow Times, 29 October 2021: A Moscow court has sentenced two bloggers to nearly a year in prison for staging an X-rated photoshoot across from St. Basil’s Cathedral near the Kremlin. They are the first people to receive real prison time for “insulting religious feelings.”
The Moscow Times, 29 October 2021: A prominent Russian human rights lawyer who fled Russia to escape criminal charges has been placed on the country’s wanted list, he said Thursday. Ivan Pavlov left Russia for the Caucasus republic of Georgia in early September after authorities charged him with disclosing details of an investigation into his former client, jailed journalist Ivan Safronov. Russian law enforcement briefly detained Pavlov in April and confiscated a number of documents during searches of his apartment.
RFE/RL, 29 October 2021: A well-known human rights lawyer who fled Russia last month after defending members of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s team said he has been added to the nation’s wanted list.
RFE/RL, 26 October 2021: The father of Ivan Zhdanov, a close associate of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has gone on trial on fraud and forgery charges that he and his supporters have rejected as politically motivated since his arrest in March. The trial of 67-year-old Yury Zhdanov opened in Russia’s Arctic city of Naryan-Mar on October 25, his lawyer, Vladimir Voronin, tweeted.
