A group of prominent Russian human rights advocates have penned a letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on the subject, asking him to take immediate action to put an end to the widespread use of torture in Russia’s detention facilities.

To the President of the Russian Federation
D.A. Medvedev

Message from members of public hearings dedicated to the problem of torture within law enforcement agencies and the penitentiary system

Respected Dmitri Anatolevich!

The prevalence of torture, physical and psychological, that happens in our country during both inquiries and investigations and also during detention has taken on a scale characteristic of a totalitarian society.

Medieval in nature, torture is used far and wide to obtain self-incriminating statements and statements incriminating others as well as for morally suppressing prisoners. Regardless of the changes in law and all reforms in law enforcement agencies, the practice of torture has been preserved and is even expanding.

We consider the current situation to be absolutely intolerable and feel that it demands joint action from both the state and civil society.

We are pinning our hopes on you, since it is precisely you who has repeatedly proclaimed that observing the principle of the supremacy of law is important and is the main guarantor of constitutional human rights and freedoms in our country.

We call upon you to issue a legislative initiative to change the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation so that it would preserve the testimony of accused persons given during preliminary investigations only in the case that it is later confirmed by the defendant in court. This would render the use of torture and forced testimony during inquiries and investigations pointless.

In addition, we call upon you to initiate changes to strip prison administrations of any motivation to use unlawful pressure against people in detention. With this goal in mind, limits on the actions of penal system operational staff should be introduced into the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. They should not have the authority to engage in illegal activities that are committed by persons outside of the given place of detention or which go beyond the punishment that the prisoner has been sentenced to. In this way, operatives will only work to prevent and put a stop to violations of the law that are planned or committed in these places of detention.

We call upon you to create a joint public and state commission to investigate incidents of torture and cruel and degrading treatment.

Such a commission should be created with the participation of representatives of state agencies and also the Presidential Council on the Development of Society and Human Rights, the Public Chamber of the RF, the Human Rights Ombudsman of the RF, a specialized committee of the State Duma of the RF, and specialized human rights organizations.

We members of the organizational committee for public hearings dedicated to the problem of torture in law enforcement agencies and the penitentiary system also feel it is very important to take part in the work of such a commission.

We are certain that, without your immediate interference, the problem of the expansion of the use of torture will definitively destroy the prestige of Russian justice and will undermind the faith of the Russian people in the law.

Hearing Organizational Committee:

L.M. Alexeyeva, representative of the Moscow Helsinki Group, representative of the head of the foundation In Defense of the Rights of Prisoners
V.V. Borshchev, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group
S.A. Kovalev, president of the Institute of Human Rights
L.A. Ponomarev, leader of For Human Rights
S.V. Belyak, lawyer
D.N. Dmitriev, lawyer

February 21, 2011
A.D. Sakharov Museum & Public Center

The Tagansky District Court in Moscow handed down its verdict in the high-profile case Monday morning, ordering exhibit curator Andrei Yerofeyev and former Andrei Sakharov Museum director Yury Samodurov to pay out the equivalents of $6500 and $4900 respectively. The two were sued by the ultra-right Russian Orthodox organization People’s Assembly for organizing the exhibit “Forbidden Art – 2006,” which included works that the group claimed were criminally offensive. State prosecutors requested a three-year jail sentence for each of the organizers.

According to the verdict, Yerofeyev and Samodurov are guilty of acting in a way that was “directed at the fomentation of hatred and enmity through the use of religious imagery.” The court called the plans for the exhibit “a deliberate crime” that the two men were able to consciously plan out due to their professional knowledge of art. The judgment cited testimony from People’s Assembly activists and other Russian Orthodox followers who spoke on behalf of the prosecution, claiming that the exhibit “foments hatred towards the Orthodox Church on the whole and Christianity in particular.” They also asserted that the works had no artistic value.

Notably, of the 134 witnesses for the prosecution, only three had actually visited the exhibit.

At the same time, the court declared that evidence given by specialists speaking for the defense was unscientific and refused to take it under consideration. Testimony from artists, art historians, critics, and journalists speaking for the defense was cited in the court decision only in small fragments. On the whole, the court claimed that testimonies for the defense didn’t hold water.

Both the exhibit organizers and People’s Assembly activists say they play to appeal the decision. The ruling elicited scathing disapproval from Orthodox activists, who stood outside Tagansky Court late into the evening on Monday shouting “disgrace!” A state prosecutor declined to comment on whether or not they were indeed planning to appeal.

Before the beginning of Monday’s session, members of the activist art group Voina released 3500 cockroaches into the halls of the courtroom in a sign of support for the defendants. Two activists were detained as a result.

This is not Yury Samodurov’s first conviction of inciting religious hatred for showing works of art. In March 2005, the then-director of the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center was convicted on these grounds as a result of organizing an exhibit entitled “Careful, Religion!” Then, as now, prosecutors asked for a three year prison term, but Samodurov was only faced to pay a fine of approximately $3225.

A photo essay of “Forbidden Art – 2006” is available in Russian by clicking here. The first set of five pictures explains how the exhibit was set up: Viewers enter a room with blank white walls, and as the art is hidden behind the walls, viewers must peek through small holes to view the works in fragmented form. As the Sakharov Museum’s website explains, the paintings are among those that were banned by various Moscow museums and galleries throughout the year 2006. “The goal is to monitor and discuss the character and tendency for institutional censorship in the cultural domain,” says the site. The exhibition was held from March 7 – 31, 2007.

The Telegraph also provides a contextually worthwhile perspective of the ruling: “Museum curators convicted over Mickey Mouse painting”

Igor Cherchenko, a member of Russia’s banned National Bolshevik Party, was detained after opening an exhibition of his works on Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square entitled “My Northern Country.”

About fifteen other activists stood with the Cherchenko while a detachment of police detained him and another National Bolshevik, Dmitri Yelizarov.

The artist’s colleagues proceeded to move his paintings to the Sakharov Museum and Public Center, where a presentation of Cherchenko’s works was to be held that same day.

Cherchenko is not the first artist arrested in Russia while attempting to display his work. Aleksander Shchendov was detained and threatened by police when he tried to display a collage of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a dress in Voronezh last June. Artem Loskutov, a leader of the underground art movement in Novosibirsk, was detained in May and charged with political extremism, as well as other charges he asserts are false.

Born in the Russian city of Vitebsk in 1973, Cherchenko has lived in Israel since 1990. He has frequently taken part in activist demonstrations with the aim of attracting attention toward political imprisonment. In December 2005, he chained himself to the gates of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv to demand the release of political prisoners in Russia. The embassy later filed a complaint against the artist, accusing him of “the violation of state borders.”

Lev Ponomarev, the leader of the For Human Rights movement, told Interfax on May 6th that a number of other museum-workers were also summoned for questioning.

The exhibit was created by Andrei Yerofeyev, an art expert who sought out works that were banned by Moscow art galleries and museums in 2006. Part of the exhibit’s intention, according to Samodurov, was “to discuss the problem as to what should and what should not be banned.”

In fact, much of the artwork on display was decidedly mild by international standards. One piece depicted Mickey Mouse and Lenin. Another showed scrawled obscenities with a background of a crucifix and other religious imagery. Others featured pornographic images. To see the art, viewers had to peek through a bed sheet with holes cut out of it.

A criminal case on grounds of “inciting hatred or enmity” was first launched against organizers of the event last year, after complaints from a movement called the “People’s Convocation.” The group, comprised of over 200 various organizations, believes the exhibit offends the sensibilities of religious believers.

The Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodox organizations have also been staunch critics of religious-themed modern art. A 2003 exhibit titled “Caution: Religion!” was damaged by six members of a religious group, who threw black paint on featured artwork. Organizers of that exhibit (including Samodurov), which was also held at the Sakharov Center, were convicted of inciting hatred.

Samodurov is being indicted and criminally charged under the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses, which covers the insult of religious feelings and the desecration of religious objects.

Other non-religious artwork has also been banned by authorities. Several works were pulled by the Culture ministry from an exhibit of political satire as it moved out of Russia on an international tour.

Still, Samodurov and the Russian art world were unapologetic for what they see as their right to free expression. Responding to criticism from religious groups, Samodurov spoke his mind:

“I personally like only a few of the works displayed. There are some that I in fact strongly dislike. But what strikes me is that, if people do not like something, they immediately say that this fuels various kinds of discord, such as ethnic, religious, and so on. If you do not like this, do not come here.”

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Read more about controversial art in Russia, with images, from Russia! magazine.