Jailed anti-Putin activist says he is being tortured in jail
Source: Reuters
A Russian opposition activist who became the first person to be jailed under a new law for repeatedly staging peaceful anti-Kremlin protests says he is being tortured in prison and fears for his life.
A Moscow court sentenced Ildar Dadin, 34, to three years in prison in December for holding a series of one-man protests, although his term was reduced to two and a half years on appeal.
Russian rights activists regard Dadin, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and his policies, as a political prisoner. The authorities say Dadin broke a law, introduced after big anti-Kremlin protests, that criminalizes anyone who violates protest rules more than twice in 180 days.
In a letter to his wife from prison in northwest Russia, published on Tuesday by the online news portal Meduza, Dadin said he was being subjected to beatings in which around 10 prison guards would kick him at the same time. He said he had also had been hung up like a piece of meat with his hands handcuffed behind his back, that he had been stripped and threatened with rape, and that the prison governor had warned him he would be murdered if he complained.
"Regular beatings, bullying, humiliation, insults, intolerable detention conditions – it's happening to the other prisoners as well," the letter said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-opposition-torture-idUSKBN12W4CS
I am just glad that peaceful protestors in the US are not arrested arbitrarily and jailed so harshly as they are in Russia...
oh... wait...
"Documentary film-makers face decades in prison for taping oil pipeline protests
Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel face felony charges that first amendment advocates say are part of a growing number of attacks on freedom of the press
Two documentary film-makers are facing decades in prison for recording US oil pipeline protests, with serious felony charges that first amendment advocates say are part of a growing number of attacks on freedom of the press.
The controversial prosecutions of Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel are moving forward after a judge in North Dakota rejected “riot” charges filed against Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman for her high-profile reporting at the Dakota Access pipeline protests.
But authorities in other parts of North Dakota and in Washington state have continued to target other film-makers over their recent reporting on similar demonstrations, raising concerns that the lesser-known journalists are not getting the same kind of public support and national attention."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/20/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest-film-makers-face-prison
Jailing peaceful protestors or even just intimidating them with threats of lengthy prison sentences is unconscionable. Honestly, we're not acting that much better than the Russians in this regard.
But then, we do imprison more people than any other country in the world:
Ranking Title Prison Population Total
1 United States of America 2 217 947
2 China 1 649 804
3 Russian Federation 645 350
4 Brazil 622 202
5 India 418 536
Our use of imprisonment to oppress and disenfranchise millions of African-American and other minorities is a disgrace.
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