Rights defender Nagavkin announces endless hunger strike at SIZO

Igor Nagavkin, a human rights defender, has lodged a statement to the Volgograd Regional Prosecutor's Office (PO) stating that he had been on an endless hunger strike already for four days in protest against rights violations of those kept at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of the city of Leninsk.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 19, 2024, at a court hearing about disorganization of the work of the SIZO, Nagavkin claimed that he had been illegally kept in a solitary cell for more than 40 days. Earlier, he reported an organized provocation to place him in a cell with "paedophiles," which caused his conflict with the SIZO staff.

Natalia Shishlina, Nagavkin's sister, has handed over her brother's statement to the above PO that on March 7 he went on an endless hunger strike.

"The reason for my extreme measure was the systematic violation of my rights while being kept at the SIZO," Igor Nagavkin has stated, pointing out that the above PO "fails to react to the fact that people sleep without blankets in winter and lack dishes for meals." He has added that the cells of the SIZO building were affected by "fungus and mould."

According to Natalia Shishlina, on the fifth day of his hunger strike, her brother "lost a little weight." "(The SIZO bosses) fail to react in any way (to his hunger strike)," she has stated.

A hunger strike as a protest measure against violations of custody conditions or inmates' rights "has an effect only when it is widely reported by media," Sergey Ivaschenko, a lawyer, has noted, adding that "a hunger strike is not legally enshrined in any way. It is informal in nature. This is the reason for the low efficiency thereof."