Relatives report suicide attempt in Nalchik SIZO

Illegal actions of the staff of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of Nalchik have provoked a mass hunger strike of inmates, which went unnoticed, relatives of inmates report. According to their stories, last night, about 30 inmates cut their wrist veins.

Relatives report about what happens in the SIZO in their letter addressed to Mikhail Fedotov, the Chairman of the Presidential Council on Development of Civil Society and Human Rights; Boris Zumakulov, the Ombudsman of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR); Magazali Endreev, the Chairman of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) of the KBR; and Valery Khatazhukov, the Chairman of the Human Rights Centre of the KBR.

The letter says that the inmates of the Nalchik SIZO, who cut their veins, had no medical care. They held this action, because the mass hunger strike, declared two weeks ago after a brutal beating of two detainees by the SIZO staff, passed unnoticed.

"Our relatives are systematically subjected to torture, beatings, humiliations and insults. Their repeated complaints about numerous offenses do not leave the SIZO... For their complaints, inmates are threatened with physical violence; they are placed into dungeon for trumped-up violations," the letter emphasizes.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.