Recently released ‘Network’ case defendant says he confessed under torture

Igor Shishkin, a former defendant in the “Network” (“Set”) terrorism case who was released from prison in July 2021, claims he was tortured following his arrest in January 2018 and gave a forced confession.

In a lengthy interview with Mediazona published on August 9, Shishkin offered a detailed account of alleged abuse at the hands of the FSB. According to the former defendant, he was arrested by FSB agents, who handcuffed and blindfolded him, and forced him into a minivan. Shishkin says that he was beaten and electrocuted while inside the van.

After driving for about an hour, they stopped at a forest outside of St. Petersburg — there, Shishkin says, he was tied up and subjected to electric shocks once again. The defendants underscores that he agreed to give a confession under torture.

Shishkin was later taken to the FSB headquarters, where officers continued to threaten him, allegedly saying they would rape his wife if he refused to confess.

The is the first time Igor Shishkin has spoken out about being tortured in official custody. However, many other defendants in the Network case have said they gave forced confessions under duress. As Mediazona also recalls, the doctors who examined Shishkin after his arrest diagnosed him with a fracture under one eye and multiple cuts and bruises; human rights activists who visited him in jail also documented marks on his body that resembled burns from electric shocks.

• Igor Shishkin was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in January 2019. He pleaded guilty after making a plea bargain with investigators and testifying against other defendants in the Network case. Following his release from prison on July 23, Shishkin left Russia with his family and sought asylum in a European country, Mediazona reports.