Interfax News Agency, Russia
Oct 27 2008
Komi rights group reports illegal detention of two foreign nationals
SYKTYVKAR Oct 27
A human rights group in the Komi Republic has informed the Bulgarian
and Armenian consulates-general in Moscow of the poor conditions at
the Syktyvkar detention facility, where two citizens of these
countries are being held, the regional human rights commission
Memorial told Interfax.
Rights activists hope that the consulates-general’s intervention will
put an end to violations of the two foreign nationals’ rights and
liberties, it said.
Bulgarian citizen Ivan Genov and Armenian citizen Ashot Kirakosian
were sentenced by Komi courts to expulsion from Russia for violating
migration regulations, according to the commission. But they have been
held at a Syktyvkar detention facility for about four months now, in
prison conditions, the commission said.
"The foreigners are absolutely isolated from society. There is neither
a TV or a radio, and there is an open stall lavatory in their
cell. The detention regime rules out meetings with anyone except their
lawyer. Meanwhile, neither Kirakosian, nor Genov is under an
administrative arrest which requires complete isolation," Memorial
said.
The rights group urged the Bulgarian and Armenian consuls to intervene
and put an end to abuses of the Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Basic Human Liberties committed by the Syktyvkar interior
department in relation to their compatriots.
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