On January 21, at the initiative of the New People faction in the Duma, a round table was held in the Hall of Columns next door, dedicated to the bills on torture available in the Duma and on the way to it. At the event, where Lev Ponomarev*, the Committee against Torture*, the Public Verdict Foundation* and other organizations and persons recognized as “foreign agents” were invited, not only they spoke (with whom deputies are unofficially not recommended to be friends) , but also the co-author of one of the bills, Pavel Krasheninnikov.
The intrigue lies in the fact that until December 20, when the draft of Klishas and Krasheninnikov was submitted to the Duma, which everyone learned about only from the latter’s interview with the Duma’s press service, the project that Lyudmila Narusova, together with members of the Federation Council, had been preparing for a year in the Federation Council, was considered a priority. HRC, including with Igor Kalyapin, as well as the Public Verdict Foundation. As Narusova told us, she heard the message about the draft just submitted by Klishas and Krasheninnikov in the car on the way to the Federation Council, where Valentina Matviyenko had just scheduled a meeting on the submission of her draft to the Duma. Klishas and Krasheninnikov were also invited there.
Andrey Klishas and Pavel Krasheninnikov. Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Earlier, Andrey Klishas suggested that instead of the draft developed with the participation of human rights activists, she should sign the one that was eventually submitted to the Duma. When she refused, Klishas' colleague explained that «the draft was sent down from the Main Legal Department, and nothing can be changed in it anyway.» In fact, already three days later — unprecedented promptness — a positive response was received from the government on it, in which Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Grigorenko indicated that this project “conforms to the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union of May 29, 2014”, which finally put Senator Narusova to a dead end (a copy of the conclusion is available in the editorial office).
Of the three generalized versions of the drafts that were discussed on January 21 in the Hall of Columns, the Klishas-Krasheninnikov draft is the mildest: it provides only for tougher punishment under Art. 302 of the Criminal Code for «coercion of a suspect, accused, victim, witness to testify … by using threats, blackmail or other illegal actions …», as well as some changes in other compositions, but without introducing a separate article on torture into the Criminal Code, which they continue to insist on human rights activists.
Some of them supported the “Narusova package”, which also provides for amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, depreciating testimony given without a lawyer, to the Federal Law “On Detention …” on the rules for moving prisoners from cell to cell (this would make it difficult to use the so-called press -hat) and about a three-day examination period for allegations of beatings. Another part of the human rights activists, convinced by Krasheninnikov that his project has already been registered and that it is possible to work only within the framework set by him, suggests reconciling it by supplementing the draft for the second reading with part of the proposals from the “Narusova package” and detailing the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, but also without singling out torture in separate crime.
According to Parliamentary Newspaper, published on January 20, that is, on the eve of the round table, the draft law “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” as the co-authors modestly called it, can be considered in the first reading as early as 8 February. Human rights activists, including those who remain in the HRC, hope that they will still be able to agree with one of the deputies in order to introduce radical amendments to the second reading.
Photo: RIA Novosti
The security forces — investigators, operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, and, alas, employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service associated with them — have enough lobby in the Federal Assembly to pass such a law “on torture”, which will still not particularly embarrass them in using this tool. As I already wrote in an article that was published on the Novaya website on January 11, both investigators who have forgotten how to obtain evidence other than through “confessions” and some of the FSIN employees who cover up the extortion of “activists” in places of detention are interested in maintaining the practice of torture. and receive a share of the profits.
After the appearance in the public space of an array of video evidence of torture at the end of last year, it is no longer possible to hush up this problem. On January 6, the Kremlin published a list of the president's instructions following his December press conference. In paragraph No. 11, the president mildly instructed the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General's Office to «analyze the practice of applying penal legislation and … prepare proposals aimed at preventing the use of illegal methods of influence on persons held in custody and sentenced to imprisonment.» It is impossible not to fulfill the president's order at all, but you can report on the implementation by lobbying for a law that, in fact, changes little, as it were, on torture.