Russia’s Investigative Committee has initiated a criminal procedure on the account of ‘incitement to suicide’ after Anatoly Berezikov, an 40-year-old activist, recently died in a jail for minor offenders in Rostov-on-Don, Pervy Otdel, a human rights group, reports.
The case was initiated on Article 110 Part 1 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which goes as “causing an individual to commit suicide through threats, inhumane treatment, or systemic humiliation”.
The investigators claim Berezikov died of “mechanical asphyxia”, that is, hanged himself in his cell where he was held for committing a minor offence. This happened on 14 July at around 9:57 a.m. There were reports earlier that there were other offenders in a shared cell, but now the investigators claim Berezikov was alone.
“There are well-grounded reasons to believe that Anatoly Berezikov was killed. His death must be investigated, and the perpetrators must be punished. Initiating a probe into ‘incitement to suicide’ is only the first, but still an important step,” Pervy Otdel says in its statement.
Anatoly Berezikov was detained in Rostov-on-Don on 10 May in his apartment. In his explanatory report, he wrote that someone knocked on his door early in the morning, posing as his neighbour, and then his apartment door was knocked down by armed men in balaclavas.
Allegedly, Anatoly was suspected of being involved in spreading leaflets of the Ukrainian I Want to Live movement around the city. The leaflets contained instructions for Russian servicemen on how to correctly surrender to the Ukrainian military.
“He told his lawyer that an FSB officer had visited him in his cell. The FSB man told Berezikov this was his last minor term, and that he was facing criminal prosecution and a life sentence,” Tatyana Sporysheva, another local activist, says.
Irina Gak, Anatoly Berezikov’s lawyer, was the first person to report the activist dead. She says she arrived at the jail on 14 June to arrange a meeting with a civil law notary for her client and validate a letter of authorisation. Gak was not allowed inside the building for a long time, and then she was told Berezikov had committed suicide, despite him earlier saying he was not going to do so, and feared for his life due to constant torture and threats.
The woman says that she last saw Berezikov on 13 June and noticed he had stun gun bruises. “As he spoke to me, he complained he had been threatened, and he was afraid they could kill him,” Irina Gak reported.
