POC: a prisoner at the Vladimir Central Center confirmed with gestures that he had bitten off his own tongue

Vyacheslav Kulikov, head of the public monitoring commission (POC) for the Vladimir region, said that a prisoner in the Vladimir central (prison No. 2) named Mdivanishvili bit off his own tongue and confirmed this.

Members of the PMC visited Mdivanishvili in the hospital, where one of them, Sergei Yazhan, asked the prisoner questions in Georgian. According to Kulikov, Mdivanishvili, with gestures and nods of his head, “confirmed that he had done it himself, that no one had tortured him.”

In addition, members of the PMC were shown a video from Mdivanishvili's cell in the colony. On it, according to Kulikov, it can be seen that the prisoner goes towards the toilet (the video camera is not directed there), and then returns already covered in blood. During this time, no one entered or left the cell. “We left with a calm clear conscience, knowing that the person did it himself, and not the employees,” Kulikov summed up.

• On December 4, President of the Center for Assistance to Foreign Citizens and Combating Illegal Migration Roman Kayfajyan stated that one of the prisoners of the Vladimir Central had lost his teeth and tongue as a result of torture. He sent appeals about this to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee.