"He lost consciousness from pain"

The accused in the case of an explosion in the St. Petersburg metro told how he was tortured for a month in the "Secret Prison of the FSB"

On April 2, in St. Petersburg, a consideration began on the merits of the case of a terrorist attack on the metro on April 3, 2017 . After the meeting, at which all the defendants insisted on their innocence, human rights activists said that one of the accused Muhamadyusup Ermatov announced torture in the “secret prison of the FSB” . Medusa publishes a monologue of a member of the Public Supervisory Commission of St. Petersburg Yana Teplitskaya, who spoke about the abduction, illegal arrest and torture of Ermatov - he himself has not yet testified in court.

Yana Teplitskaya

Member of the St. Petersburg PMC

When we visited Muhamadyusup Ermatov in the investigative insulator on March 31, he talked in sufficient detail about how he was held in a secret prison in Moscow - and tortured from April 6 to May 11, 2017. Perhaps this is the same object that the Azimov brothers spoke about. We did not interview them in detail this time, but they do not refuse our words about torture, and confirm that it was.

To briefly retell what Muhamadyusup and his brother told us, then on April 5, 2017, Muhamadyusup disappeared [in St. Petersburg] and did not go to work. This was reported to the brother of Muhamadyusup, with whom he lived in the same apartment.

The brother of Muhamadyusup, along with his friend, searched for the missing one and twice contacted the police. For the first time, when they realized that he had disappeared, in the second - when they saw that the wheels were lowered by his car [near the house]. The police came to their apartment and photographed everything. In addition to the Ermators, five more people lived in this apartment. The next morning, all the tenants, with the exception of Muhamadyusup, were detained in the apartment. Now they are all accused of a terrorist attack.

For more than a month, nothing was heard about the missing Muhamadyusup. On May 11, law enforcement officers officially announced that he was detained in a park in Moscow. According to Muhamadyusup, everything was like this: on the morning of April 5, he left the house and went to his car. At that moment, three people approached him. One of them hit his nose strongly - his nose was broken. After that, Muhamadyusup was thrown into the [other] car and brought to some building. Presumably, this is the building of the Investigative Committee, where the other residents of his apartment were delivered the next day. There, Muhamadyusup was taken away from Muhamadyusup and changed into one -time. Then he was chained into handcuffs and shackles. They were connected in chains through the neck.

After that, Muhamadyusup was put in a car and for about 9 hours they took somewhere, apparently to Moscow. All this time he was with a bag on his head. With a bag on his head, he remained until May 11. Only sometimes he could peep something.

As a result, Muhamadyusup, he said, was brought to some building, lowered somewhere down and attached to the battery radiator. They beat with their hands and feet. After some time, he was brought into the room, removed the handcuffs and wrapped their legs with tape. They began to torture - the wires between the little finger and the ring finger of the legs were clinging to and gave a current. He lost consciousness from pain. He was given water and brought into consciousness.

Then a man entered the room who asked to tell in detail about everything. Mukhamadyusup in response told everything, starting from the time of his arrival in Russia. In response, this man asked: “Do you want everything to continue?” Muhamadyusup said that he would tell everything they want. The man said: he wants to hear that Muhamadyusup was familiar with [the man whom investigators call the Has-Military House of Akbarzhon] Jalilov. And during these torture, and the following was demanded by this.

The whole month, Muhamadyusup, according to him, was chained to the pipe in an uncomfortable pose, not having the opportunity to stand normally or sit. It was unimportant only for the time of torture and interrogations. Total tortured 5-6 times. In addition to meeting Galilov, they also asked me to admit that someone brought a bomb to their apartment. Being there, he heard screams of other people. Also, all this time he was almost not fed and did not beat him - they gave a little buckwheat and water, once they gave cognac. Muhamadyusup was very exhausted.

Officially, traces of torture were not recorded, but a few weeks after the official arrest of Muhamadyusup were hospitalized from Lefortovo. An ambulance arrived there - the doctors said that Muhamadyusup should be urgently taken to intensive care. As a result, for some time he spent in a civil hospital in Moscow. I have not seen any medical documents. Muhamadyusup says that in the hospital the convoy prevented him from communicating with doctors and telling them everything.

Physical violence was also applied to the brother of Muhamadyusup. According to him, after the detention, when he led him from the car to the building of the UK, the people whom he considers the FSB officers beat him on the head in such a way as not to leave his tracks. According to him, inside the building he was put on his head several times, depriving him of the opportunity to breathe. But there were no traces left, too much time has passed.

Mukhamadyusup believes that it was the current FSB officers who were engaged in all this, since he was tortured by the same people who took him for interrogation before arrest. After the arrest, he wrote complaints to the military prosecutor’s office, but, I am not sure that they were recorded. After the complaints, someone came and interviewed him, but there were no other consequences.

After the official arrest, there was no longer any torture and violence. Nobody told us about this. I don’t know if it is possible to establish something from a medical point of view now, but I promised Muhamadyusup that I would personally write a statement about the crime. He believes that, perhaps, it will somehow help that before leaving the secret prison he bought clothes-it was in it that he was talking to us and talked in the pre-trial detention center.

Pavel Merzlikin recorded