Lawyers claim torture of person charged with murder of Khlebnikov

The lawyers of one the defendants in the case of murder of Paul Khlebnikov, chief editor of the Forbes magazine Russian version, have filed a complaint to the Russian Federal Service for Enforcement of Punishments (FSIN) and special rapporteur on human rights at the UN Committee against Torture and other Inhuman Treatment in connection with the pressure exerted on their defendant, reports RIA "Novosti."

"Yesterday, I visited Sadretdinov. I learnt from him that he is subjected to torture. He has been transferred to another cell where the air is hardly above 5 degrees," claimed on Tuesday Ruslan Koblev who represents the interests of the Moscow notary Fail Sadretdinov.

"The total area of the cell is eight square meters, this is for five persons. There are only four beds, people sleep in turns, and Sadretdinov is an invalid of the second category," stressed Koblev. The prisoners also wear warm clothes in turns. According to the defendant, as related by the lawyer, the cell is virtually not heated, the central heating battery and the common use water pipe leak, resulting in an almost one hundred percent humidity." From the moment of his transfer, fits of Fail's disease never stop and we are seriously concerned about his life," says Koblev.

As it became known, Sadretdinov had been transferred to a new cell last Tuesday. Yesterday his lawyer Ruslan Koblev made known the statement of his client: "It is a punishment for my principal stand in court. My lawyers and I managed to replace the biased judge and they immediately punished me."

Last week the hearings on the "Khlebnikov's case" which barely started were suspended due to replacement of the judge. Officially it was explained that the initial judge fell seriously ill and needed hospital treatment.

The "Vremia Novostei" (Time for News) newspaper writes that as early as last autumn Sadretdinov's defence lawyers requested hospital treatment for him. Instead, the notary was transferred without any reason to a cell where the temperature is close to zero.

The document prepared by the lawyers to be sent to the above instances, apart from the conditions in which Sadretdinov is being held which the defence considers as torture and an attempt to exert pressure, will include other facts of cruel treatment of witnesses on the "Khlebnikov's case. "

Note that the hearings on the murder of Khlebnikov are conducted in camera because the file contains documents marked as "classified" and "top secret."

Paul Khlebnikov was murdered in Moscow on July 9, 2004. Three persons, Fail Sadretdinov, Moscow notary, and two Chechens, Musa Vakhaev and Kazbek Dukuzov, are under trial.