Media report reveals secret Putin order to send people opposing war to pre-trial centres without court decisions

The Pervyi Otdel (First Department) human rights project, citing documents from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, have reported that following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin signed a document allowing law enforcement officers to deprive people of their liberty and send them to pre-trial detention centres without opening a criminal case or a court decision.

Source: Pervyi Otdel; Radio Liberty

Details: According to the report, human rights defenders learned that the Investigative Committee received an appeal to one such detention, stating that a Russian citizen was placed in a detention facility without a criminal case being opened, on the basis of a "decision of the President of the Russian Federation [Vladimir Putin] dated 8 March 2022 on the organisation of reception and placement of persons resisting the 'special military operation' [Russian propaganda term for the war in Ukraine – ed.]." [N.B. Ukrainska Pravda does not recognise Putin as president – ed.]

Under this "decision", officers of military investigative bodies, the FSB, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Protective Service of Russia are reportedly authorised to send individuals considered to be opposing the "special-military operation" to pre-trial detention facilities.

The Investigative Committee rejected the appeal, referring, in addition to the Russian leader's decision, to a "temporary instruction" regulating detention rules in pre-trial detention centres.

"Neither the 'decision' (it is unclear in what legal form it exists), nor the temporary instruction has been made public. The text of the 'decision' remains unknown," the human rights defenders said.

Pervyi Otdel notes that detaining a person without a court decision violates Article 22 of the Russian Constitution, which states that no one may be deprived of liberty except by court order.

According to Radio Liberty, over the years of the war there have been repeated reports that Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians detained in occupied territories have been held in Russian pre-trial detention centres or similar facilities without criminal charges or court decisions, often without access to lawyers or relatives.

Journalists note that the document cited by Pervyi Otdel suggests that such practices, by order of Putin, may also be applied to Russian citizens deemed to be opposing the war.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!