Four men suspected of carrying out the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia in decades appeared before a court in Moscow on Sunday evening, with signs revealing that they had been tortured. One of them entered with his ear partially cut off, while the second was sitting in an orange wheelchair, with his left eye swollen. While others appeared to have traces of blood and bandages on their faces.
According to the newspaperThe New York Times“Many of those who followed the defendants’ presentation session around the world, including the Russians, already knew what happened to them, pointing to the widespread dissemination of video clips documenting their torture during interrogation, in what analysts described as clear retaliation for the attack that resulted in the death of Ma. At least 139 people were killed and 180 others were injured.
One of the most disturbing videos showed one of the defendants, identified as Saeed Karami M. Rajabalizoda, had part of his ear cut off and placed in his mouth. A photo circulating on the Internet showed a battery attached to the genitals of another defendant, Shams al-Din Faraidouni, while he was being detained.
It was not immediately clear how the videos began circulating, but they were posted on nationalist, pro-war Telegram channels that are considered close to the Russian security services, according to the American newspaper.
“Revenge and warning”
Although the most horrific clips were not shown on state television, the brutal treatment of the accused was clear. Analysts said that the Russian authorities’ decision to bring the matter openly before the court, in a way they had almost never done before, was a “sign of revenge and a warning to potential terrorists.”
Olga Sadovskaya of the Committee Against Torture, a Russian human rights organization, said that in Russia’s modern history, no torture videos have been shown on state television.
She added: “There was an intention” to distribute the videos… Firstly, to show people who could be planning another terrorist attack what could happen to them, and secondly, to show society that there is retaliation for everything that people suffered in this terrorist attack.
Sadovskaya and other analysts said, “The blatant display of torturers showed something else: the extent to which Russian society has become militarized and tolerant of violence since the start of the war in Ukraine.”
For his part, Andrei Soldatov, an expert in the Russian security services, explained: “This is a sign of how far we have gone in accepting new methods of conducting the war.”
International surveys have shown that societies tolerate violence against people they consider to be the worst criminals, including terrorists, serial killers and perpetrators of violence against children.
However, Sadovskaya said, the videos broadcast on television “show that the state and the authorities prove that violence is acceptable, and that they normalize torture for a particular subject.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. refused. Peskov, on Monday, commented on the torture allegations during a press conference with journalists. But former President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, implicitly defended the matter.
He said: “Should we kill them? We should, and we will do it…but the most important thing is to kill all those involved” in the attack. “All of them: those who paid, those who sympathized, and those who helped.”
“Out of sight”
For his part, Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer who used to defend difficult national security cases before he was forced to flee Russia, said, “Torture has long been used in terrorism and murder cases, out of sight.”
He added that once news of torture leaks out of prisons, it makes “other people know that if you are accused of terrorism, the special forces will torture you. So this step is a security precaution.”
Pavlov said that the court hearings on Sunday were unusual because “the display of torture was carried out very brazenly.”
He added, “Before, they hid the matter from the general public, but now they do not do so because the general public is ready for violence,” adding, “It is no longer very disturbing to the public because of the war.”
Russia is no longer a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, but the Russian Constitution prohibits torture. It is also part of the United Nations Convention against Torture.
Since torture is a crime under international law and in many countries, defense lawyers typically seek to throw out any testimony obtained under torture because it is unreliable, said Scott Roem, director of global policy and advocacy at the Minnesota-based Center for Victims of Torture.
“Torturers don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the various consequences of their actions,” especially in the wake of an attack like the one in Moscow, Romm said.
“I think the mentality of the executioner is often a combination of the desire for revenge, coupled with a completely ignorant and misguided assumption that you can get someone to confess under torture, and that confession can be used to convict them,” he noted.
Trials of those involved in terrorism cases in Russia are usually closed, as were most of the hearings on Sunday, so it is impossible to know the extent to which defense lawyers object to this practice, according to the newspaper.
“Most Russian judges are likely to ignore this in any case, because they already know what is expected of them in terms of sentencing suspects,” Pavlov said.
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