Appeal of Aslan Cherkesov’s mother (Kabardino-Balkaria) on the fact of beating his son in investigative isolation ward of Krasnoyarsk

To:

Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg,

Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Vladimir Lukin,

Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva,

Executive Director of All-Russian movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev,

Head of work group for Northern Caucasus Maxim Shevchenko,

Chairman of the Council of “Memorial” Human rights center Oleg Orlov,

Chairman of Human rights center of Kabardino-Balkaria Valery Khatazhukov,

Non-governmental Committee for control of the activities of Federal Penitentiary Service in Krasnoyarsk region, Head of “Alan” association Sufyan Beppaev,

Head of Coordination council of non-governmental organizations of Adygea Zheliabi Kalmykov

From:

Sonya Muhadinovna Cherkesova, KBR, Nalchik, Vologirov street, No 19, flat 6

In the interests of my son A.M. Cherkesov

I am mother of Aslan Magomedovich Cherkesov sentenced to 20 years of custody for murder of Yegor Sviridov in Moscow. After the sentencing procedure my son was moved from one investigative isolation ward of Krasnoyarsk region to another for one month and a half. During all this period I knew nothing of his location and state.

My repeated attempts to find out his location in the Department of Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation failed.

I consider that there was no point in convoying my son to Krasnoyarsk region because there are penitentiaries meeting all the standards of serving penalty stipulated by clause 73 of Correctional Code of the Russian Federation in our region, too. This has become a practice concerning natives of Northern Caucasus in order to hamper contacts with their people and in this way decrease control of observance of the convicts’ rights and bring psychological and physical pressure on them.

On March, 20, Aslan’s attorney told me that 8 persons cruelly beat up my son in investigative isolation ward (IIW) No 1 in Krasnoyarsk. He has bruises and scratches on his face and body and his leg is injured. Besides, the attorney was not permitted expertise of beating my son. The administration of IIW took no measures to prevent beating my son. Aslan let us know through his attorney that they wanted to kill him in the investigative isolation ward. And that was not the only episode: he had repeatedly undergone violence and torture from the workers of IIW.

I declared many times and repeat it once again that I have never justified what my son did and offered apologies to Yegor Sviridov’s family and friends. But the sentence of 20 years of custody in a strict regime colony is unfair, biased, politically motivated and out of keeping with real circumstances of the case.

Here is one more evidence that while bringing the verdict the court was guided by political motives. Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin publicly called my son a recidivist who had been in prison twice. It is a direct lie for my son has not been in prison a single day and this can easily be verified.

Besides, Mr. Putin defiantly came to Yegor Sviridov’s grave and laid flowers in this way manifesting his position that he unambiguously took the side of the radical nationalists who used Yegor Sviridov’s tragic death for their anti-Caucasian political campaign.

I do not think a person who has at least any idea of the nature of our juridical system and the extent of its independence doubts that the court bringing the verdict against my son was first of all guided by Vladimir Putin’s statements and position on the matter.

In connection with this I cannot but mention one more thing. We all know well that there are a lot of cases when natives of our republic are murdered in Moscow by all sorts of skinheads and Russian nationalists. Such cases are practically never investigated or referred to court. I know it from mass media and people who are interested in my son’s fate.

If still quite recently I had some illusions that after serving his penalty my son could become a person of full value in the society, now after this last brutal beating in the IIW of Krasnoyarsk region it became quite clear to me that the state wants and is ready to kill him and this would be done for political purposes, to please those who shout from the house-tops: “Beat the Caucasians!” or “Stop feeding the Caucasus!”.

Dear sirs, I am a mother, a human-being and a citizen of the Russian Federation and I appeal to you as my last hope: help me save my son and give him a chance to become a person of full value in our society.

S.M. Cherkesova

March, 22, 2012