“Torture and FSB”: a letter to the defendant “Cases of ABTO” from the colony

The defendant of the “Autonomous Combat Terrorist Organization” Ivan Astashin is in prison. He was accused of involvement in a series of arson, which the FSB considered terrorist activities. Astashin spoke in a letter from the OVD-Info, why it is so difficult for the detained FSB to inform about torture and what prevents this from doing this at all stages-from IVS to court. The letter is published with minor editors.

“We did not find the sentences issued to the FSB officers at all. But to human rights activists, as the [lawyer of the “Committee against torture“] Sergey Babinets said, complaints about torture by employees of this department rarely come (only 18 cases in 6 years) ”.

This is a quote from the article of Novaya Gazeta Alesi Marakhovskaya and Irina Dolinina "Whoever raises Russia to the Higher." Based on her, you might think that the uncles of the Chekists do not try to anyone at all, and 18 cases for 6 years are all the luminaries of enemies.

At the same time, this is not so. Or rather, not at all. The latest confirmations of the use of FSB torture are the “network case” and the October report of the members of the PMC of St. Petersburg Ekaterina Kosarevskaya and Yana Teplitskaya.

Maybe they have not been tortured before? Ted for how! The Chekists tortured me and my accommodated during the detention in 2010 - and it was felt that they were not in a novelty.

But the question remains: why then there are so few complaints about torture by the FSB? Why do not even the human rights activists turn to the victims of the Chekist violence?

"Acceptance"

The detention with the participation of the FSB is almost always powerful. They are not introduced. If the FSB special forces are not involved, then these are just people in civilian clothes with compact, but with high -quality weapons in their hands, in masked or without masks. Sometimes they don’t even shout “lying!”, And the “enemy of the state” is already lying on the floor, face to the floor, hands in handcuffs behind their backs, on the head of a bag.

It happens that they are tortured right at the place of detention, as it was, for example, with the defendants of the NSO-Severs. They were tortured right in the apartment of a residential building. And they tortured, I must say, no worse than the medieval inquisition. Vlad Tamamshev, who, during the detention, shot his legs, poured batteries in gunshot wounds. Other “NSOSHNIKS” were tortured with more “traditional” methods.

My collapsed, Ksenia, was also tortured in the apartment, which I mentioned in the article “ Chekist terror ”.

In other cases, they are torture during “delivery”. In a service car or in a conditional forest. Both times I was tortured in the car. I wrote in detail about my detention in the publication “ Falsification and power station ”.

After the tortures, they are usually taken to the place where the “guilty facilities” will be officially drawn up, interrogations are carried out, etc. In Moscow, detainees on high-profile matters are often delivered to Petrovka, 38 (the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow- OTD-Info ). The FSB is trying not to defile his apartments by the appearance of a “criminal element” in them.

Petrovka, 38

On the night of March 5, 2010, in the building of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in Moscow, the light blinded me - because before that all the way from the moment of detention my eyes were tightly closed with a hat, stretched on my head by the Chekists. These were the first hours of lack of freedom. And at first I did not even know where I was. In response to the mysterious replicas of the security forces, the thought flashed: "Is Petrovka really?" Yes, son, this is Petrovka - the main cop symbol of the country.

But, as elsewhere in the country, on Petrovka, 38, the Higher power has the Chekists - for them there are no closed doors and prohibited methods, and the tone of work, if necessary, also set.

And so I seem to be on the stage where there is some kind of crazy performance. I am sitting on a chair, chained to it, and around a bunch of people. And everyone is suitable, they ask something, someone takes pictures, someone tells someone about me, someone asks to lower the pants and show the tattoo. And at the same time, all these people know that the FSBshniks brought me to Petrovka, they know that they tortured me and I "confessed everything to everything." And they - and this is mainly operating a criminal investigation department and employees of the EE Center - are now trying to collect crayfish from the bar table, to seize that they are not interested in the FSB. “Do you know that? Do you know that? Have you set fire to the reception of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? " The Chekists here also make sure that everyone goes according to the script.

Squeezing all possible operational information from the prisoner, the friendly team goes to the bureaucracy. Some opera sits up to you and begins to dictate the text of the "confession."

It happens, here, in one of the offices, the investigator sits. They called him in the middle of the night and reported that the “dangerous criminal” was caught - it was necessary to interrogate, while he is warm, while there is no lawyer. No, the lawyer, of course, will be during interrogation, but it will be the right lawyer whispering that the guilt will facilitate the fate of the "stumbled".

There can be many interrogations - in different departments, with different investigators. And this is not counting endless operas. Everyone wants to snatch something from the "fresh".

After the first arrest, I was dragged on interrogations for a day (24 hours!). Petrovka, 38 - Internal Affairs Directorate in the SEAO - Solntsevo police department. And the Chekists dragged, the very ones that the village tortured me. They drove to their service “ten”.

IVS

But sooner or later you will be delivered to the IVS (temporary detention center- ATS-info ). Perhaps this will be IVS No. 1 - a prison within Petrovka, 38.

Most likely, you will be put in a camera with “ducks”-some kind of cat and drone-convicts that have recently arrested information. That this is “ducks” (they are also called “hencakes”), it happens, you understand right away, but it happens - after a while. They can just listen to you, they can ask any questions like: “Did you know Sasha Potkin? I remember that we are in 2005 with him ... ”They can directly include to cooperate with the investigation.

In some regions, for example, in Krasnoyarsk, in IVS, press khats are also organized.

While you are in the IVS, you are constantly taken to the office, and there - again the opera, again the investigator, and maybe the correspondent of the Moscow Komsomolets or NTV. Only for you this is all one - unpleasant characters that demand to admit that you did not do, and to stipulate other people. For this they promise you not to beat and give a lesser term - not 15 years, but only 5.

At the same time, no phone calls. No dates (your relatives may not even know where you are). And about the possibility of sending a letter you have not thought yet. However, even if you write a letter, it will be given it first to the investigator.

You are in the power of the system. And you are alone.

"Pence"

Two days after the official detention, which is often executed a day later than the real one, the arrested must be taken to the court in order to “choose a preventive measure”. Simply put, the court must give the good to keep the accused for several months in jail.

In court, you can see your family for the first time after the arrest. But you can not see, even if you have them - how do they know that today at 15:00 you will be delivered to the Presnensky district court of the city of Moscow?

In the worst version, in court, besides you, there will be only a judge, an investigator, a prosecutor and a “right” lawyer.

But even in the “best” case, you are unlikely to talk to your family. And the lawyer “according to its intended purpose” ***** [spit] - he is here for furniture. And you are alone again.

The meeting begins. The investigator reads the petition at the end: “... may hide. I ask the court to choose a preventive measure in the form of detention. ” The lawyer mumbles something about the recognizance of a non-place or house arrest. The court gives you a word, you get up: “I do not agree. I will not hide from the investigation and are not going to influence witnesses. ”

It does not occur to you that here, in court, whatever it may be, you can publicly declare torture - and, at least, your words will be recorded in the protocol of the court session. Or maybe if there is someone except the system of the system in the courtroom, the information will leak into the will. But. It just doesn't come to mind! You still do not know that the regulation can be broken. And you need to break it!

Pre -trial detention center

In the IVS they can be held up to 10 days. Then the accused must be transferred to a pre -trial detention center.

In the pre -trial detention center, you meet other prisoners. Someone was also tortured during the detention; Someone has been sitting for more than one month, but on an absurd charge; Someone complained to the higher investigative authorities, to the prosecutor's office, to the court; Someone paid a million to a lawyer. And everyone is sitting.

Moreover, if the FSB is engaged in you, you will most likely sit on a special block - on the case where small cameras, there are no mobile phones, and instead of corrupt arrangements on the prodole, an incorruptible major. In short, isolation.

Your only thought: to survive before the trial, and there to prove that you are innocent. Maybe even thoughts about the house, about relatives - you have already written a letter to them and wait for the response.

Advocate

"The lawyer will come, figure it out!" - said my cellmate Mahulav, a native of the Dagestan village of Gimra. And this is the extremely compressed position of many people who consider themselves incompetent in these "legal" affairs.

But in reality, Laer can be as incompetent. For example, your friends hired him, because "he pulled out Vaska when his cops were accepted with the gram of hash in his pocket." But you have not a gram of hash-the Chekists sew you no less “participation in the terrorist community”!

You tell a lawyer about torture, and he in response shakes his head and sighs: "This is terrible!" You tell him that you were “knocked out by the Chekists with a confession” of the absurd “confession”, and he advises you to tell everything in court.

I am not saying that all lawyers are like that - who have neither desire nor the ability to provide legal assistance in case of torture - but many. Many many.

Maybe they were not taught this. Maybe they are afraid of the FSB. I don't know. Maybe they simply ***** [do not care]. But the fact remains. A rare lawyer will show the initiative and begin to prove that the FSB tortured you.

Moscow specifics

And another important point.

I was very surprised how rudely the FSB worked in the “network case” - so many obvious traces of torture!

At the same time, the Chekists tortured us, the defendants in the “ABTO affair” so that there were no traces. Other victims of the FSB torture in Moscow spoke of the same thing. Moscow specifics? Maybe.

After all, electric shock - and this is a favorite method of Chekists - can be tortured without leaving no traces!

I was tortured with electric shock at the first detention, on the night of March 4 to 5, 2010. The wires were first connected to the ankles, and then to the temples. They also gathered to the eggs ... according to the sensations - I didn’t see anything - at the ends of the wires there were small metal plates. And then I honestly looked for traces of this execution. There are no them!

And dick you will prove.

Investigator

Surprisingly, for the first time to officially declare to torture, the investigator forced me. During the interrogation on January 27, 2011 - a month after the second and final detention.

The investigator for particularly important matters, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice, Stanishevskaya Anna Alexandrovna presented me with a “copy of the application to the protocol of the interrogation of the witness I. Astashin dated 03/05/2010 (Syndicate scheme and asked that I can explain according to the “Document”. After consulting with a lawyer, I did not invent anything and told the investigator in sufficient detail on the night of March 4 to 5, 2010, and how later I was forced to write all sorts of fables about non -existent organizations, including the Syndicate (Astashin was accused of involvement “Autonomous combat terrorist organization” to the syndicate- OTD-info ).

And what do you think? Investigator Stanishevskaya even conducted a 30-day check of the crime report. However, according to its result, “The statement of Astashin I.I. The explanations of the Criminal Investigation of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in Moscow and the Federal Security Service of Moscow and the Moscow Region, which detained and tortured me, were completely refuted.

However, I did not expect anything else. System.

Legal illiteracy

Since the end of 2012, I have been writing complaints to various instances if I think that my rights are violated. The fact that “so can” and how it is done, I found out in prison in Krasnoyarsk.

But at the age of 18, when I was "accepted", I did not know anything about it. Absolutely nothing.

In my first cell on the special block of “sailor silence”, adult uncles, all as for the selection of part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (a murder combined with robbery, extortion or banditry- OVD-info ) advised me: read the Criminal Code and the CPC. And I read. But there was not a word about torture there!

And I thought how to get a shorter term. And when I was presented nine “205s” (an article by the Criminal Code on terrorism- OTD-info ) instead of two “213” (article on hooliganism- ATS-info )-how to fight off an unreasonable accusation and not leave for 15 years. But I did not think about how to prove the fact of torture and punish gesniks. Because in the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure there is nothing about it. Not only, of course, therefore, but also, including.

Human rights activists

And with human rights activists, everything is simple. Who are these? Who saw them?

Damn it, I found out about the PSC, having sat in prison for more than a year. And then, thanks to my new acquaintance - the cellmate Daniil Konstantinov and journalist Pavel Nikulin, who covered our process. Thanks to them, in the walls of "sailor silence" I met real human rights activists, at that time by the members of the PMC Andrei Babushkin and Anna Karetnikova.

Later, somewhere in the year 2013, I began to pay attention to the Human Rights Office of the Agora, the Committee against torture, the Public Verdict mentioned in Novaya Gazeta, also learned about the Civil Rights Committee.

About the “civil rights committee”, the face of which is Andrei Babushkin, among the prisoners it is known at least something-you can find an address, minimal information. Legends go about grandmother among the convicts, he is respected and admired, and his “Pocket Book of the Prisoner” is appreciated above any legal literature.

We know about other human rights organizations only from the press. There are not even addresses. Yes, they do some important things. But the usual convict, and even more so that the prisoner just got to the prison, cannot go there - because he does not know how! Where to write? To the village to grandfather?!

Court

And in court you tell how the FSB opera was tortured ...

But the court has two blanks for this.

First: "Why didn't you go to the investigating authorities on this fact?"

And the second: “On this fact, you turned to the investigating authorities, but the investigator issued a decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case.”

Is everything clear?

Some ideas about how such courts are held, where even witnesses say that they were “taken to the forest” can be obtained from my article “ Falsification and power station ”, written five years ago - in hot pursuit.

Result

Almost all of the above - about torture during detention in general. However, the article is not in vain called “torture and the FSB”.

How qualitatively different the FSB from other power structures, I think, does not need to be explained. This is already said a lot, including me.

At the same time, it is precisely against the FSB that they rarely act - protests, connected, for example, with the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at times more. And there is a simple explanation for this: ordinary citizens with the FSB do not intersect or intersect extremely rarely, and with impudence, corruption, lawlessness, impunity of cops are found almost every day.

The same with torture. The FSB is involved only in criminal cases of "state importance". And out of 100 detentions, maybe only one passes with the participation of the Chekists.

At the same time, among the victims of torture in the FSB there are real terrorists, on whom the blood of civilians. And such people, most likely, do not claim torture at all. And they should not expect a wide sympathy.

But there can be no excuse torture. There can be no exceptions. Torture remains torture, regardless of who they are tortured - an innocent teenager or terrorist who killed 100 people. Very correct words on this subject said the chairman of the “Committee against torture” Igor Kalyapin: “There is no more terrible encroachment on the idea of ​​human freedom than torture. This is a more terrible crime than murder, this is an encroachment on the most important thing a person has is free will. ”

Therefore, society needs to make efforts so that the torture with which the Chekists do not disdain either in the Caucasus or in Moscow are covered, investigated and condemned at least at the level of civilian institutions, if not court instances. There is - again - the ECHR, the UN and other international bodies.

You can’t be silent in any case. And not only to the victims of torture, but also to all of us - witnesses to torture, put in Russia on stream. Silence is a sign of consent. If you are silent, knowing about torture, you agree.

Yes, and the line is very thin: today they try to the terrorist, and tomorrow-you.

February 2019.

Political prisoner Ivan Astashin.