Case of Mikhail Trepashkin: defendant's statement about torture used against him

On December 1, 2003, former FSB (Federal Security Service) Colonel Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested in connection with the criminal case according to which he faces charges of divulgation of state secrets, abuse of power and illegal storage of ammunition.

To remind, Mikhail Trepashkin was an active member of the commission that inquired into conditions of the explosions of apartment houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999. He is famous with his scandalous interview in which he actually accused special services of covering up the people who committed the explosions.

We call your attention to the statement by Mikhail Trepashkin:

After I was arrested by the Judge of the Moscow Circuit Court Martial I was subjected to torture and degrading treatment as follows:

1. Torture by Hunger

On November 30, 2003 I was transported, handcuffed and under armed escort, from Volokolamsk SIZO to Dmitrovsk IVS of the Moscow region and from there further to the Moscow Circuit Military Court. I was not given any dry rations or packed meals. I asked Judge Sedov S. P. if I could get at least a cup of boiled water (hot or cold) but my request was denied under the pretext that I was to be given a meal in the evening at the court.

The escort brought me to detention facility IZ-77/1 (Matrosskaya Tishina jail) by 1 am on December 2, 2003. There I was put into a small cell-like room ("a box"), sized 1.5 x 1.8 m, no windows, no ventilation, very dirty and full of cigarette smoke, bug-infested. It was Box No. 1 in the ground floor, especially reserved for the so-called "BS" people (former police officers).

I stayed in the box without any food or drink until 9. 30 am, December 2, 2003, whereupon they gave me some dry cereals (not edible without water), put me into a special prison car and brought me to the Moscow Circuit Military Court, where I arrived at 1.30 pm, so I could read the materials of my case there (I was allocated 9 days to read all 26 volumes of the case files).

Since I had not slept for 24 hours and had not had anything to eat for 48 hours, I asked the escort to give me some hot boiled water for the cereals and a cup of tea. My request was rudely denied. I was handcuffed with one hand to the desk, fixed very low under the desk, so I could not sit straight, and they suggested I should read through my case files and make notes in this very undignified pose. It was physically impossible to hold and manipulate the thick volumes, let alone make notes as well. When I finished with one volume and wanted to open another with one hand, I had to use my nose to keep it open. I was certainly unable to write in that position. Besides, since I had to bend low to one side because of the handcuffed hand, my back and the side started to hurt rather badly. Since I was trying to use the handcuffed hand to hold the pages of the volume which kept closing and was pulling it up all the time, my wrists were soon covered with marks (from the handcuff) and started to cause me considerable pain, too. I was dying for a sip of hot water and was very hungry. So, I refused to go on reading through the case files and made a written statement where I said that until they stopped torturing me with food deprivation I could not and would not read the materials of my case. They refused to accept my statement. I was sitting there, handcuffed, freezing and did not know how else to express my protest and make them stop torturing me.

At that point my lawyer, Ms Yulina M.G., arrived. It had cost her a lot of effort to get the permission to see the case materials together with me. She was a witness to all the torture described above and started arguing with them.  It took her some time (at least an hour) to make them feed me (she brought some food along) and bring a kettle of water.

Thus, after two days of food deprivation I managed to stop them torturing me with hunger.

However, since it took me so long to make them stop torturing me, I only had 2 - 2. 5 hours left to read the case materials. At 6 pm I had to leave the court and was taken to the Matrosskaya Tishina prison, where I arrived only as late as at 1 am on December 3, 2003, because the prison cars were taking their time going around different Moscow jails, instead of taking detainees straight to their respective jails, which also amounts to torture, as described in more detail below.

I should note here that what I described above was not a single occurrence, there were other days when I was denied food or even a cup of boiled water for the whole day. For example:

on December 4, 2003 at the Moscow circuit Court;
on December 18, 2003 at the Moscow circuit Court;
on 19 December 2003, on the trip to Dmitrovsk City court (I was suddenly summoned from my cell without breakfast to go there and was brought back too late for supper, no one fed me for the whole day).

2. Torture by Sleep Deprivation

The Judge of the Moscow Circuit Military Court used arrest as a restraining measure but failed to take any steps to protect my rights under Art. 3, 5 - 6, 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as he should have done, pursuant to Paragraph 15 of the RF Supreme Court Directive of 15 October 2003 No.5 "On applying common principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation by courts of general jurisdiction". I have filed my written complaints about it at least four times (see attached to the case file).

So, I had the following time frame for reading the materials of my case collected in 26 volumes, excluding weekends: December 2,4,5, 8-10, 2003, 6 days in total.

This was not sufficient time. Moreover, the way my days were organized then were as follows:

• at 5 am I was taken out of the cell to be ready to leave for the court (which meant I had to get up at 4.30 am latest);
• from 5 am to 9 am I had to stay in the box, a small room full of cigarette fumes and no ventilation, overcrowded to the extent one could not get a seat, waiting for the prison cars to come;
• it took from 9 - 9.30 am to 12.30. - 2. 00 pm to be delivered to the court. The prison van goes around several courts and choose their routes accordingly;
• I was allowed to stay in the court from 12.30 - 2 pm and from 3 to 6.00 pm. I had no more than 2 - 2.5 hours a day to read the files (because of all their logistical and organizational mishaps);
• from 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm to 11 pm - 1 am they were delivering us back to pre-trial jails under escort;
• I came back to my cell at 1 am - 2 am.

I was put on this schedule all throughout the time allocated to me to read the materials of my case and prepare the defence line.

Through that period, from 1 December to 15 December 2003 (except weekends) I had no more than 2 hours of sleep a day and sometimes had no chance to sleep at all, because I did not (and still do not) have my own bed to sleep on, all detainees take turns to sleep.

I filed my protests to Judge Sedov S. P. several times, because it was not possible to read the case materials after just two hours of sleep. It is particularly hard when you were deprived of sleep for days. However, nothing at all was done about that. The hearings of the case at the Moscow Circuit Military Court martial started after I had had that mockery of a chance to "get myself acquainted" with the case materials. In clear violation of Art 47, Part 3 of the Russian Federation Criminal Procedural Code, which guarantees the defendant the right to prepare for their defence, Judge Sedov started the court trial without giving the defence enough time to prepare. The Court ignored my requests to give more time to read the case material, which I filed on the grounds that I had been subjected to torture by hunger, sleep deprivation and cold.

Another reason to say that torture by sleep deprivation was used on me comes from the fact that since I arrived at the pre-trial jail Matrosskaya Tishina on 1 December 2003 by today (20 December 2003) I have not been provided with a personal bed. In Cell no.274, where I was placed, detainees take turns to sleep, 2 or sometimes 3 people per bed. Those waiting for their turn to occupy the bed have to stand, because there is nothing and nowhere to sit. It also accounts as physical torture. There is no bench at a dining-table in the cell, either. There are no sitting facilities inside the cell, although the room is quite small (8 beds) and badly overcrowded (14 people). At the moment I am sharing my bed with 4 other detainees; although most of the time I share it with one detainee, a Alexander Nagkiitsev, who is advanced in years and suffers from numerous diseases (he has a bad case of psoriasis). Clearly, he needs more time to rest than me, which means I spend most of my days, even weekends, either standing or moving around the small room to make space for my fellow detainees.

I see this as gross violation of my civil rights protected under Art. 17 and 23 of the RF Federal Law "On Detention of Suspects and Those Accused of Criminal Offences" of 15 May 1995 No.103 - FZ (the edition of 30.06.2003, NO.86-FZ).

3. Torture by Cold

Because of the trial I have to take daily trips to the Moscow circuit Military Court. The transportation takes up at least 15 hours a day. The detainees have to stay inside prison cars all that time. None of the prison vehicles is heated or provided with any heating devices.

In the evening, after the trip to the court I am usually taken to Butyrskaya jail, where I have to spend 4 - 5 hours inside the prison car waiting for another prison vehicle to come and take me and my fellow detainees back to the Matrosskaya Tishina jail. In fact, it was like staying outside at sub-zero temperatures all the time.

Because of the cruel way the prison transportation to and from the court was organized, we were always frozen to the point when you were almost passing out. It took 40 minutes or longer to get warm again after every such trip to the court and back.

The escort room at the Moscow Circuit Military Court has no heating, either. Since I had to sit there for an hour or longer, waiting for the hearing to start, I got even colder. I only managed to get warm inside the courtroom, but then I did not have any time left to get ready for the defence.

I was sick many times, because of the cold. Luckily, I could use weekends to get warm and make myself feel better by drinking tea and medicines brought from home by my relatives. I repeatedly asked to see a prison doctor, especially when my asthma attacks became worse, but no health worker ever came to see me.  Despite their promises to send me a doctor, I received no medical care at all. It is practically impossible to see a doctor or get a health check-up in the Matrosskaya Tishina jail. There were cases when detainees were so sick they passed out, and only then were they taken to the hospital, However, they were ushered back to their cells as soon they received some emergency care. Even those suffering from serious diseases do not get any medical examinations or treatment, in gross violation of Art.24 of the Federal Law No.103 ? FZ.

4. Acts of Humiliation and Other Degrading Treatment

A.) Judge Sedov S. P. of the Moscow Circuit Court Martial has deprived me of any decent conditions in which to prepare for my defence.

Firstly, on December 1, 2003 he denied my requests to get back the following, previously confiscated, documents:
- the Indictment;
- the list of witnesses from the Defence;
- folders containing the evidence for the Defence;
- my petition about inadmissibility of the evidence against me etc.,
thus, depriving me of the right to defence.

I was even denied my request to get a copy of the RF Criminal Procedural Code. Judge Sedov knew that I was under arrest since 22 October 2003 and that he himself denied my requests outlined above, nevertheless he told me that I could have prepared my defence lines as early as in September 2003. That was mere mockery, since they confiscated everything I had prepared in my defence (investigator Shevyakov D. V. and the armed escort).

Secondly, when Judge Sedov S. P. did give me a chance to read the materials of my case, he ordered that I could do so either in the escort room or in the jail, but not in the court room. So, to be able to read the files I had to sit in the unheated room for escort, handcuffed. One of my hands was usually handcuffed either to the desk or, more often, to the chair I was sitting on, which meant I could only use one hand to handle the materials, which was humiliatingly difficult: it was hard to hold down heavy volumes with my other, handcuffed hand;
- the handcuffed hand used to go numb from the pressure and the same position I had to hold for hours on end;
- if I had to make even a tiniest of notes, I had to hold the volume, which kept closing, with either my leg or my own nose. It was next to impossible to write.
- since my hand was fixed so low under the table or chair, I was unable to sit up and see the text normally. I had to virtually read with my nose in the book.

All that had a feel of mediaeval torture, savagery and humiliation. All my written pleas to stop torture were left unanswered by Judge Sedov, who did not do anything to stop it. Such were the conditions I had to study my own case in. It is clear that I was only able to scan the text, at best.

B) For some reason detainees are not transported straight to their respective jails but are first brought from different courts to Butyrskaya jail in the evening. We have to stay inside unheated prison cars for 5 hours and longer. All detainees, no matter if they are already under arrest or merely suspects, sit in the cramped car compartments, lined with metal and full of cigarette fumes. Former police officers are put together with old offenders and life prisoners.

Many a time I had to share a car with convicts suffering from active TB, sitting in a small compartment face to face with 20 other people, with maximum allowed capacity for 6 - 8 detainees. The sick convicts cough right into your face, because it is so crowded they have no chance to lift their hand to cover their mouths. Once I was transported in such a car together with Mr Mavrodi, who was on that occasion put into a shared car, although normally he is transported individually.

Since detainees had to spend hours inside the car, all smokers lit their cigarettes and the air was heavy with fumes. By the time I got back to the Matrosskaya Tishina jail, I was suffocating and unable to climb stairs. My bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis got much worse because of such transportation conditions. However, I have not been receiving any professional medical help.  Luckily, I have a chance to use my very few spare hours to exercise yoga to help restore my breathing, although my lungs and bronchi never stop hurting.

The cell is badly overcrowded: in the morning of 20 December 2003 14 people were sharing a 16 sq m room.

All my fellow detainees (namely, Messrs. Gubin, Kireev, Mironov, Negeitzev and others) can officially confirm that the rules of detention are grossly violated.

5. Violation of Detainees' Rights:

a. no conditions to prepare for defence;
b. the time to meet relatives and lawyers is very limited (no more than 40 minutes).

This is a gross violation of Art 18 of the Federal Law "On Detention of Suspects and Accused of Criminal Offence" of 15 July 1995, No.103 ?FZ.

It seems that the FSB-RF is deliberately worsening the conditions of my detention, because there are free cells in the jail I am in and there is a chance to be transported directly to the court, without any intermediate stops. I think that they put me into such inhumane conditions on purpose, so I would not be able to defend myself against the fabricated charges.

Since Cell No. 274 is so badly overcrowded and the detainees take turns to use the beds, it is not possible to sleep even at night, during those few hours when it is your turn to sleep, because those without a bed are leafing through (old) magazines and loudly discussing them, and in general there is lots of movement and noise, because the room is so cramped and narrow that even two people are unable to squeeze past one another without problems.

It is very hard to maintain personal hygiene. The detainees are taken to shower stalls once every eight days (8 stalls per 14 people). Since I was moved around the courts and jails so often, I had no chance to take a shower for 4 weeks. There is no hot water inside the cell and it is not possible to wash oneself. In the last week I have filed two requests to the head of the jail to let me use a shower, but they have all been ignored. I have filed all my requests in writing.

December 20, 2003