The ECHR assigned priority status to the application of Ildar Dadin

On November 3, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) applied interim (urgent) measures to the application of opposition activist Ildar Dadin for torture in a colony. The Public Verdict Foundation reported this on Facebook. In addition, on its own initiative, the court assigned priority status to Dadin’s application.

Dadin’s wife, Anastasia Zotova, reports on Facebook that the activist was visited by the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova. According to her, Dadin confirmed the facts of the beating and today he is being taken for examination to a hospital in Petrozavodsk after he had a seizure the day before during a meeting with representatives of the Public Monitoring Commission (POC).

At the same time, the Dozhd TV channel, with reference to Moskalkova, wrote that there were no traces of the beatings on Dadin’s body for the reason that during the use of violence the activist was wearing clothes that help not leave marks. In addition, in a conversation with the Ombudsman, Dadin stated that violence was used against him outside the cell.

It was previously reported that the Investigative Committee found no evidence of violence against the activist. “Explanations have been received from the convict, medical documents have been added to the inspection materials, a forensic medical examination has been ordered and is being carried out. In addition, a medical worker and employees of the correctional colony, persons from among the convicted persons serving sentences in the correctional colony were interviewed, and video recordings from the institution’s CCTV cameras were seized and are being studied by investigators,” the Investigative Committee reports.

On November 2, the policedid not allow journalists to enter the village where Dadin is serving his sentence. The post of traffic police and FSIN officers located in the village allowed only correspondents from the Karelia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company to pass through.

Preliminary measures are applied by the Court against the defendant and mean that he must refrain from actions that could prejudice the consideration of the applicant's complaint by the Court.

A criminal case under Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code (repeated violations at rallies) was opened against Dadin on February 2, 2015, after he served 15 days of administrative arrest following his arrest on Manezhnaya Square on January 15. On December 7, 2015, Dadin was sentenced to three years of actual imprisonment.

Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment of up to five years in prison after four decisions made in six months under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences, was included in the Criminal Code in the summer of 2014.