Translated material
HRW: former prisoners of Guantanamo are tortured and persecuted in Russia with the knowledge of the United States
The authoritative international human rights organization Human Rights Watch published on Thursday the 40-page report “The Scheme of Guantanamo” , which accused Russia of the persecution and torture of former guantanamo prisoners returned to the country in 2004 under the “diplomatic certificates” of Moscow in humane circulation.
The authors of the report believe that the history of seven Russians - former guantanamo prisoners, three of which are behind bars, and four either left the country, or hide, proves that the United States should abandon the use of the so -called "diplomatic assurances" in humane circulation when sending people exempted from prison in this American military base to one or another country.
It should be noted that, according to some reports, the latter - the eighth Russian prisoner of Guantanamo - Ravil Mingazov is being prepared for sending to Russia. The official representative of the State Department of the United States did not confirm this information, and the adviser to the Minister of Defense of Russia, General Vladimir Shamanov, who heads the prisoner of war, interned and missing persons, in turn told reporters that he did not have documentary data that Mingazov contains on the basis of Guantanamo.
The report based on an interview with three former Russian prisoners of Guantanamo, their relatives, lawyers and other people, talks about what they had to endure after repatriation in March 2004. Three of the former prisoners of war, after arrest in Russia, were subjected to serious torture and inaccessible treatment, two were convicted of procedural violations, everyone was oppressed and trained from Russian law enforcement agencies, the report said.
“Russian history shows that diplomatic assurances simply do not work,” says Carol Boert, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch and the author of the report. “Governments that systematically practice torture are unlikely to change their behavior only because the American administration will argue that it has achieved some assurances from them.”
According to Bogert, the American administration knew how they treated the suspects in Russia, but still repatriated them. Two former prisoners told Human Rights Watch that American investigators in Guantanamo threatened them with sending to Russia.
Based on this, the authors of the report accuse the United States of violation of international law, indicating that the UN Convention against torture prohibits sending any person to the country where this person may be tortured, avoiding exceptions either for national security reasons or other grounds.
The authors of the report note that "diplomatic assurances" are trying to use to deport or issuing suspects in terrorism and many other states, including Great Britain, Canada, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Human Rights Watch called on the US government to introduce the procedure for considering applications for the released prisoners of Guantanamo, so that these people get a real opportunity to challenge the sending to one or another country in independent instance. Such a procedure should also provide for the detainee the opportunity to challenge the reliability of any US diplomatic assurances received.
Meanwhile, the State Department adviser John Bellinger said that Human Rights Watch requires incompatible things. “We cannot immediately close Guantanamo and at the same time not send anyone to his homeland,” Bellinger said. The group’s requirement that the objections of prisoners should be considered by an independent body will lead to a violation of the obligations taken by the United States under the contract: to decide whether the concluded dangers are subject to the government, writes The Washington Post (full text on the website inopressa.ru ).
Bellinger also stated that the US government cannot say anything about the cruelty to these people and "will follow their fate to the end."
The American administration has appointed about 80 people to release or transfer from Guantanamo, but they are still detained. Human Rights Watch notes that no procedure for evaluating the risk of torture should become an obstacle to either repatriation or the complete elimination of insulators in Guantanamo.
The Russian prisoners of Guantanamo were released after three months of the pre -trial detention center, but then were persecuted
Seven Russian citizens - Ruslan Odizhev, Rasul Kudaev, Ravil Gumarov, Ayrat Vakhitov, Rustam Akhmyarov, Timur Ishmuratov and Shamil Khazhiev were detained shortly after the American invasion of Afghanistan and eventually spent about two years in Guantanamo. With all their complaints about the uncertain appeal from the Americans, they all repeatedly asked the camp administration in Guantanamo not to repatriate them to Russia , since it was assumed that it would be even worse in their homeland.
According to the American administration, the Russian authorities promised to pursue former prisoners in criminal order as terrorists and treating them humanely. In fact, everything turned out the other way around. After three months in the pre -trial detention center, where the appeal was normal, all seven were released and tried to return to normal life, which, however, turned out to be impossible.
Rasul Kudaev from Kabardino-Balkaria was detained after the events in Nalchik in October 2005. Photos, medical and judicial documents and certificates of lawyers and relatives indicate that he was repeatedly beaten , demanding recognition. To date, Kudaev has been in custody for almost a year and a half, although the prospects for his criminal prosecution in the case of an attack on Nalchik remain unclear.
Ravil Gumarov and Timur Ishmuratov from Tatarstan were detained in April 2005 in connection with the explosion of a communal gas pipeline in Bugulm. Both signed the confession after the beatings, Gumarov, in particular, did not allow about a week to sleep, riveted in a narrow cage to the ceiling.
At the trial of Gumarov and Ishmuratov, they abandoned the testimony and in September 2005 were justified by the jury. The prosecutor's office of Tatarstan, however, achieved the cancellation of the verdict in the Supreme Court of Russia, and in May 2006 both were convicted at the new process.
Former prisoners of Guantanamo and their families talk about constant oppression by Russian law enforcement agencies and special services, especially the FSB and ARU. Ayrat Vakhitov said: "Many times they said that after Guantanamo no need to prove that I am a terrorist, that any of us can be sent to bars, because we are terrorists."
Recall that Human Rights Watch has already published a report a year ago on the situation with the torture of former guantanamo prisoners in Russia. Then Boert also called on the US government to give in some situations the right to prisoners to challenge their return to their homeland.