Chuck Darwin"Polar Wolf," the strict-regime prison to which opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been sent is a place where a water cannon is an instrument of torture.
"In the winter, prisoners would be hastily assembled in the courtyard in light clothing," said prisoners' rights activist Olga Romanova, relating the testimony given by a man who was released from Polar Wolf, more formally known as IK-3, in 2018.
"They were held in formation and not allowed to clap or rub their hands together. They had to stand for 30 or 40 minutes without moving when it was -45 degrees Celsius or colder. If one person moved, the whole group was doused with water."
"In the spring, there was a new torture," she added. "Mosquitoes and biting flies. If you moved a hand, the water came. They would just douse the whole group with a water cannon."
After spending 19 days incommunicado during transit from a prison in the Vladimir region, Navalny confirmed his arrival at IK-3 -- in the settlement of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets district above the Arctic Circle in north-central Siberia -- on December 26, one day after his lawyer was able to visit him there.
Navalny is serving a 19-year prison term on extremism charges that he and his supporters maintain are part of a campaign of persecution aimed at stymying his political activity. Amnesty International, the banned Russian human rights group Memorial, and others have recognized him as a political prisoner.
#navalny #prison #kharp #siberia #polarwolf #ik3
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-arctic-polar-wolf-prison/32749723.html
'Polar Wolf': The Harsh Prison Where Navalny Was Sent And How His Team Found Him
After 19 days with his whereabouts unknown, Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been found at a strict-regime prison north of the Arctic Circle. The "Polar Wolf" prison is notorious for its brutal conditions and daunting isolation.
Kriszta Satori
Erik Jonker
Putin's IBS