The former head of the Committee against Torture, Igor Kalyapin, has been hospitalised after being attacked in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia’s Human Rights Council reported on Thursday, 25th August.
An unknown man tried to strangle Kalyapin and attempted to stab him in the face. The human rights activist was able to call the police and the attacker was subsequently detained.
Kalyapin suffered a suspected concussion.
Credit: Novaya gazeta / YouTube
“We were celebrating the birthday of a former employee and this man was there — he was introduced to me as a current (police) officer. We were drinking, everything was fine. Then I invited him to my house and he attacked me without saying a word. He genuinely tried to kill me, he wanted to stab my throat with a piece of glass. He was out of his mind,” Kalyapin told news outlet “Ostorozhno, Novosti.”
Kalyapin later told independent media outlet Agentstvo that the incident was likely not linked to his profession. “It seems more like a domestic conflict,” commented project spokeswoman Natalia Kurekina.
According to the outlet, police officers and lawyers from the Crew Against Torture are currently working at Kalyapin's house in the village of Donskoye in Nizhny Novgorod Region. The police will give a legal qualification to the incident later, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a press release.
In June, the Russian Ministry of Justice added the Committee Against Torture to the list of “foreign agent” NGOs, describing the organisation's activities as “representing the interests of claimants in investigative bodies and courts; assisting in obtaining compensation and, if necessary, providing medical rehabilitation measures.”
The organisation has since dissolved itself, but said it would not abandon the 188 cases it was working on prior to . “These are 188 stories of inhuman cruelty and hope for justice — it is our duty to bring them to an end,” said Serhiy Babinets, the organisation's former chairman.
A few days later, the human rights activists announced they would continue their work as the “Crew Against Torture,” or CAT.
The Committee Against Torture has been working without formal registration since 2016. In 2015, the Russian Ministry of Justice included the Committee Against Torture in its list of “foreign agent” NGOs, which led the human rights activists to dissolve the organisation. Following the dissolution, the group set up another NGO called “Committee for the Prevention of Torture,” but it too was labelled a “foreign agent” and disbanded.
