In Buryatia, a human rights activist who was filming a story about torture was detained near a colony

In Ulan-Ude, employees of correctional colony No. 8 detained Yevgeny Khasoev, a human rights activist and lawyer of the Siberia Without Torture organization, who was filming a documentary about torture. This is reported by "Taiga.info" according to Khasoev himself.

Together with the human rights activist, his cameraman, who was filming the film, was detained. Both are currently at large.

Khasoev said that he chose the territory near colony No. 8 as one of the locations for filming a film about torture and human rights activists. There he planned to meet with two former prisoners who had incriminated themselves as a result of torture.

“I was walking along the road, the cameraman was filming me. And there is only one road to this colony, only workers travel along it. In a car passing in the opposite direction, we were apparently “copied” by one of the employees,” says the human rights activist.

Four guards were waiting near the gates of the IK for the authors of the film, who began to ask them why they were here and for what purpose they were filming. Soon, the deputy head of the colony came out to them and said that they were detained for filming "inside the perimeter of the secure facility."

The lawyer noted that the territory of the colony within a radius of 50 meters is not guarded in any way, and there are no signs indicating the prohibition of video filming. When Khasoev tried to leave, the colony officers grabbed him by his clothes.

As a result, the detainees were ordered to delete all records containing the image of the colony, which they did, after which they were released. The authors of the film, in addition, were interrogated and watched without a protocol and the presence of attesting witnesses.

• The human rights organization "Siberia Without Torture" became a member of the pan-European multimedia project "20 years of European Prison Law". Project participants and human rights activists are documenting how the rights of prisoners in prisons are respected or violated in various European countries.