“Starting next week, we will again have the opportunity to walk around the detention facility and the colony-settlement, subordinated to the Federal Penitentiary Service of Moscow,” he said. 

The opportunity to visit the cells is provided for by the federal law on the PMC and is a key element of public control over the observance of the rights of citizens in places of detention, the source said. 

During the coronavirus epidemic on March 30, visits to the Moscow SIZO by members of the POC were completely canceled. 

The restrictions were gradually softened: for some time, human rights defenders communicated with prisoners in the premises for short-term visits through a glass partition, and more recently in the investigation rooms.