27 August 2025
Russia withdraws from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: occupiers legalize inhumane treatment of Ukrainian political prisoners
The Russian government has proposed denouncing (unilateral official process by which a state terminates its participation in an international treaty it has previously signed) the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment(European Convention against Torture). The relevant decree, signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, was published on Russia’s official legislative portal on August 25.
In occupied Crimea, Russians systematically resort to torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian political prisoners—currently, the occupiers are illegally detaining 222 people, including 133 Crimean Tatars. In fact, Russia is getting rid of a human rights protection mechanism that was not working anyway.
The first victim of Russian torturers was Reshat Ametov, a Crimean Tatar activist, back in 2014. After staging a protest against the occupation of Crimea, he was detained by members of the so-called “Crimean self-defense” force. In the presence of regular Russian military officers, he was forced into a car and taken away. He was never seen alive again — his body was discovered on March 15 in the Bilohirsk district of Crimea.The man’s body showed signs of severe torture: his eyes had been gouged out, he had numerous injuries, and his mouth had been taped shut. The cause of death was a knife wound to the eye.
The occupiers systematically torture political prisoners in detention, deny them medical assistance, ignore existing health conditions, and use “trace-free torture” methods. There are countless examples of Russian crimes.
Civic journalist and human rights defender Iryna Danylovych, who was abducted by FSB officers in Koktebel on April 29, 2022, has reported inhumane detention conditions and torture. According to her, prison administrators use methods reminiscent of Gestapo practices. She reported that hundreds of women are subjected to so-called “trace-free torture”: bright electric lights are constantly on in the rooms, day and night, and are so dazzling that even blindfolds do not help. This deprives people of sleep, causes chronic headaches and irritation in the eyes. In addition, starting at six in the morning, sound amplification equipment operates at extreme volume in the barracks for several hours. Such noise causes severe suffering and becomes a source of acute physical pain.
Crimean Tatar activist and Crimean Solidarity journalist Amet Suleymanov, who already suffered from aortic and mitral heart valve insufficiency before imprisonment, is forbidden to lie down on his bed from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. He is forced to stand or sit on a narrow bench all day long. Suleymanov feels unwell and weak every day. Prison staff have taken away his Quran, do not allow him to pray in the morning and at night, and threaten him with solitary confinement for violating the daily routine.
Another example is Emir-Usein Kuku, a human rights activist detained on fabricated charges in the so-called “Yalta group” case of Crimean Muslims. At the end of July 2023, he underwent intestinal surgery: however, Russian doctors still refuse to say exactly which part of the organ was operated on; the political prisoner was denied further necessary rehabilitation. Usein-Kuku reported that he cannot eat in the prison canteen because he was forbidden to eat grains after the operation. The lack of adequate nutrition has resulted in Emir’s systematic starvation.
63-year-old Crimean Tatar Servet Gaziev, illegally accused of alleged “terrorism”, complains of constant pain in his intestines, as well as problems with his spine. The political prisoner was abused in SIZO-5 in Rostov-on-Don: detention center employees systematically beat the man, causing his musculoskeletal health issues.
Employees of Penal Colony No. 1 in the Tula Region of the Russian Federation, where Ukrainian political prisoner Server Zekiryayev is being held, are forcing him to constantly breathe toxic fumes from the sewage system. Due to suffocation and aggressive inflammation of the cervical lymph nodes, he is on the verge of nervous and physical exhaustion, unable to sleep for up to four days in a row. In the same colony is Crimean political prisoner Rustem Osmanov, sentenced by a Russian court in Crimea to six years in prison for allegedly participating in the Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion named after Noman Çelebicihan. Since his arrival at the colony, administration staff and prisoners under their control have subjected him to constant threats, physical violence, and humiliation because of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Inhumane conditions and lack of medical care in Russian prisons constantly lead to the deaths of political prisoners. In recent years, Dzhemil Gafarov, Kostiantyn Shyryng, Rustem Viraty, and others have died in captivity.
Russia, as an occupying country, is systematically showing its true colors: denouncing the European Convention completely absolves Russians of responsibility for failing to provide medical care to prisoners, torturing them to obtain “necessary” information, intimidating and morally abusing political prisoners, and kidnapping and brutally murdering activists.