The first documented death in police custody in Russia occurred to Anatoly Berezikov, who had been imprisoned for distributing anti-Ukraine war pamphlets.
The circumstances surrounding his death while incarcerated at Rostov-on-Don’s jail are still unknown, however the cause given by officials is suicide, which his family and friends dispute.
The 40-year-old showed his attorney little red marks on his chest that appeared to be the result of an electro-shocker before his body was discovered in a cell on June 14.
There are allegations that the activist was killed as a result of torture, which is a widespread practise in the nation’s prison system.
Anatoly confided in friends that he was terrified of “disappearing” and that the police would “kill” him after his arrest.
He revealed to Tatyana Sporysheva, a local activist who also served as his public defender, that he had received threats of torture, rape, and a life sentence.
She described the FSB’s horrible tactics for persecuting activists like Anatoly by saying: “People can be repressed without a trial or an investigation.”
They have the power to abduct, torture, kill, imprison, search, and intimidate people.
Following the start of the war, Anatoly was well-known in Rostov-on-Don as an opponent of President Vladimir Putin.
He was one of thousands of Russians who opposed the invasion and were later threatened, fined, or imprisoned.
Additionally, he was a proponent of the anti-corruption campaign founded by Alexei Navalny, Putin’s top rival.
On May 10, cops arrested Anatoly and immediately searched his flat.
614 Russians were prosecuted with crimes related to opposing the war up to June, according to the human rights advocacy group OVD-Info.
Bogdan Ziza, a performance artist from Crimea, was given a 15-year prison term in June after he threw a Molotov cocktail at the front of the Yevpatoria city administration building and poured yellow and blue paint on it.
He began a hunger strike the day before the verdict, calling for the release of political prisoners.