Amnesty warns of backslide Ukraine rights climate.
MOSCOW – President Dmitry Medvedev’s reforms to rid Russia of police violence, legal impunity and unfair detention have been "piecemeal" and done little to curb frequent rights abuses, Amnesty International said on Friday.
Three years after Medvedev succeeded Vladimir Putin and promised to fight Russia’s tradition of graft and widespread flouting of the law, allegations of police torture and corruption in the judicial system are widespread, the rights group said in its annual report.
"In spite of a stated desire for police reform, corruption and collusion between the police, investigators and prosecutors were widely perceived … There were frequent reports of torture and other ill-treatment by law-enforcement officers," it said.
"Judicial reform continued to be presented as a government priority. However, reforms remained piecemeal and had only a limited impact."
Outrage over the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who colleagues say was denied access to adequate medical care in pretrial detention, spurred Medvedev to propose legal reforms and order a special rights inquiry into the case.
Leaked details of the inquiry by a commission of rights lawyers last month found the case against Magnitsky was fabricated, but no one has been prosecuted over his death. [ID:nLDE73P06D]
"It’s of course positive that Medvedev has repeatedly expressed respect for human rights organisations and independent media, called for greater independence of the courts, but so far this has not realised itself into real action," Amnesty’s Russia expert Frederica Behr told Reuters.
The watchdog group cited the December sentencing of ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is to remain in jail until 2017 following his conviction in a second trial, as an example of political pressure on the justice system. [ID:nLDE6BT16W]
"MIXED MESSAGES"
Amnesty also accused Moscow of sending mixed messages on freedoms, saying that while the official rhetoric has changed and activism is growing, police crackdowns on protesters and attacks on journalists continued in a climate of impunity.
There have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia since 2000, including the 2006 killing of Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
"In the last three years people have less fear to go out into the streets. … We have seen a growing activism among the population," said Behr. "But at the same time we have seen harsher methods by the authorities to clamp down on dissent."
Less than a year before a new election, a perceived lack of results has disappointed rights activists, liberals and critics of Putin who hoped Medvedev’s presidency would bring more tangible reforms.
Putin, president from 2000-2008 and now prime minister, has hinted he will seek to return to the Kremlin in the March 2012 vote or endorse Medvedev for a second term.
"WORRYING TREND" IN UKRAINE
In the neighbouring ex-Soviet republic of Ukraine, Amnesty said the human rights situation had deteriorated since President Viktor Yanukovich took office in February 2010 and quickly consolidated political powers.
"In a worrying new trend, the picture darkened in Ukraine for human rights defenders," it said. "They were physically attacked, and faced harassment from law enforcement officers, in connection with their legitimate human rights work."
Amnesty cited the case of Andrei Fedosov, the chairman of a mental disability rights group, who was assaulted by unidentified men last year and then briefly detained on charges of committing a crime 10 years ago, which were later dropped.
In another case, a court ordered trade union activist Andrei Bondarenko to undergo a forced psychiatric examination after prosecutors said he had displayed "excessive awareness of his and others’ rights and his uncontrollable readiness to defend these rights in unrealistic ways". (Additional reporting by Richard Balmforth in Kiev; editing by David Stamp)
