Poland refused to extradite Buryat human rights activist Yevgeny Khasoev to Russia

The Warsaw District Court refused to extradite the Buryat human rights activist and head of one of the branches of the Siberia without Torture organization, Yevgeny Khasoev, to the Russian authorities. About this he told the project “Siberia.Realities”.

“The judge announced that it was obvious to her that the Russian authorities, with the help of the case and the scheduled checkup in the mental hospital, were trying to discredit and punish me for providing legal assistance to the participants in the winter actions in support of Navalny,” Khasoev explained.

The human rights defender was detained in Warsaw in July at the request of the Moscow office of Interpol. Khasoev was placed in a temporary detention center.

On February 8, Yevgeny Khasoev was detained by police at a meeting in the Sovetsky District Court of Ulan-Ude, where he was in the status of a defender of one of the participants in the all-Russian actions on January 23 and 31 in support of the founder of the Anti-Corruption Fund, Alexei Navalny. The human rights activist had a conflict with one of the bailiffs, who, according to Khasoev, provoked him. According to the Investigative Committee, Khasoev called the bailiff to the street, where he suddenly “took an awl and a folding knife from his pocket, after which he expressed threats of reprisal.” In this regard, a case was initiated against the human rights defender on the use of violence against a representative of the authorities (part 1 of article 318 of the Criminal Code).

Later, Khasoev became a defendant in the libel case (part 2 of article 128.1 of the Criminal Code). He was instituted after a human rights defender, who had previously worked as a criminal investigation officer, starred in the documentary “I am a policeman who was tortured by police” on the YouTube channel “Burning Tour”. He described how he was tortured by the police.

In April, the Buryatia department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation put the human rights defender on the international wanted list. In connection with the criminal prosecution, Khasoev left Russia. He considers the cases brought against him to be falsified and politically motivated.

Siberia Without Torture is a human rights project that monitors torture and ill-treatment by security officials.