Putin Calls For Thorough Investigation Of Torture Incidents In Prisons, Systemic Changes

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged relevant authorities to thoroughly and timely investigate all reports of torture in prisons and stressed the need for systemic changes to prevent such incidents in the future

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2021) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged relevant authorities to thoroughly and timely investigate all reports of torture in prisons and stressed the need for systemic changes to prevent such incidents in the future.

"This issue is, of course, very important, and I've followed what was happening, this information needs to be carefully examined. The Investigative Committee is doing it right now, the central office controls and conducts preliminary investigations on incidents that have come to light and that are now being considered as part of criminal cases. But we need systemic measures that will change the situation," Putin said at an annual meeting with the Human Rights Council.

The country's Federation Council has already begun work on amending the legislation on torture, including defining the crime and the punishment it entails, the president noted.

A large-scale probe into crimes in the Russian penitentiary system was launched in October, after Belarusian citizen Sergey Savelyev, who previously served his term for drug trafficking in Russian prison, started leaking footage of torture and rape of inmates. The whistleblower secretly saved hundreds of gigabytes of videos after prison administration tasked him with logging surveillance camera footage. Before publishing the footage, he fled Russia.