“Prisoners massively complained that, despite the permission to make phone calls to relatives, the administration of the detention center does not provide such an opportunity.
Those arrested are not taken to a specially equipped room, from where they can legally call relatives,” said one of the members of the commission.
Representatives of the SIZO administration explained to human rights activists that now “permissions brought by lawyers or even received by prisoners from a judge in the courtroom are not accepted, and only documents sent by investigators and judges by mail are considered valid.”
The PMC added that each call from the pre-trial detention center requires a separate permission from the investigator, they are issued quite rarely, but some have already accumulated 20-30 pieces, because prisoners are simply not taken to a special room.
The administration of the pre-trial detention center explains to them that "equipment adjustment" is underway.
The inhabitants of SIZO No. 4 also complained to the PMC about the delivery of regular mail.
For example, Andrey Bykov, the former director of the Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), who was arrested in October 2021 on charges of abuse of power, told members of the POC that even officials’ responses to his appeals are given to him a month after they are delivered to the pre-trial detention center.
Earlier, prisoners of the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center asked to open the windows in the cells due to the heat that had set in in Moscow.