Russia rejects anti-Putin convict’s plea for hospital transfer

Russia on Monday denied a plea from a Siberian shaman for transfer out of a severe psychiatric hospital, over three years after being confined for protesting against President Vladimir Putin, his lawyer said.

Alexander Gabyshev, 55, was sent to a psychiatric hospital in January 2021 after repeatedly attempting to walk from his native Yakutia in Russia’s far east to Moscow in a bid to “exorcise” Putin from office.

A Siberian court refused to soften his treatment and transfer him to a general psychiatric hospital in May, a decision Primorsky Regional Court upheld on Monday, his lawyer Alexei Pryanishnikov said.

“We will appeal up to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, a commission of psychiatrists will hold another examination of Alexander Gabyshev in early October,” Pryanishnikov said.

Rights groups have criticised Russia for using psychiatry and forced confinement in mental institutions as a punitive tool against dissent, a practice that was systemic in the Soviet Union.

Gabyshev’s involuntary confinement in psychiatric hospitals may amount to a form of torture, Amnesty International has said, while the Russian rights group Memorial has recognised him as a political prisoner.

AFP

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