"No one is protected” from the repressions in Russia, a UN expert warned today, stating that the situation has worsened even more than last year, reported France Presse, quoted by BTA.
The situation has worsened significantly since my report last year and the country is now governed by a state-sponsored system of fear and punishment, including the use of torture with impunity, Mariana Katsarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights, told a press conference in Russia.
She presented her new report, which will be discussed tomorrow by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Reiterating numbers already mentioned in early August by a group of UN experts, the rapporteur, who is mandated by the Human Rights Council but does not speak on behalf of the organization, said that currently in Russia are detained "more of 1300 political prisoners“.
"Many of them are subjected to torture or their conditions of detention amount to torture and ill-treatment,”, Katsarova pointed out, according to whom "the death of Alexei Navalny in February, while he was detained in prison, is only one of the examples of the cruel treatment of the political opposition“.
In short, "repressions have intensified since last year”, explained the rapporteur, who did not have permission to visit Russia and who believes that human rights defenders, journalists and political figures are "persecuted and imprisoned more and more often” .
"Police violence is tolerated. Arbitrary arrests and detentions are widespread. Detention conditions have worsened, with increased cases of isolation and death in custody, used especially against political prisoners, Katsarova said.
She also pointed to "mass internet surveillance”, which shows that "Russian authorities are persecuting dissidents, opponents of the war and human rights defenders not only physically, but also via the internet”, so that "no one is safe”.
Katsarova explained that the focus of her report is “violations of civil and political rights, especially in relation to the anti-war sentiments that the Russian authorities are trying to silence”.
She particularly emphasized the connection between the Russian "aggression”, which began in February 2022 in Ukraine, and the "repression” in Russia, according to AFP.