Chernokozovo detention center (russian: Чернокозово СИЗО, ''Chernokozovo SIZO'') is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

in the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of Chernokozovo, Chechnya,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The detention center is operated by the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

and currently has the status of

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

. Chernokozovo SIZO was notorious during the

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...

, serving as the main component of the " filtration camp" system operated by Russian federal forces. It was the site of reported

human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

, particularly accusations of widespread

arbitrary detention Arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention are the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law ...

and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

History

The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-era

maximum-security Maximum security prisons and supermax prisons are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries, which pose a higher level of security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is ...

penitentiary facility at Chernokozovo was closed down during the First Chechen War in December 1994. It was re-opened by the Russian federal forces during the

at the end of 1999, officially as a "temporary reception center for the persons detained on the grounds of

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

and begging". In fact, it served as an unofficial prison camp for captured separatist fighters, as well as one of at least four main "filtration camps" (or "filtration points") for male and female civilians (including children) who were either arbitrarily detained as "suspicious persons" at hundreds of checkpoints or just non-selectively rounded-up in their own homes during the mass and indiscriminate "mopping-up" ('' zachistka'') operations and then kept there without any charges.Filtration System
, Memorial, 2008/09/04 According to official figures, about 10,000 people passed through the "reception center" at Chernokozovo. Among the prisoners was also the

RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

journalist Andrei Babitsky, kidnapped by Russian federal forces in Chechnya, who in a statement for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

said: "Everything that we read about concentration camps of the Stalin period, all that we know about the German camps, all this is present there." In February 2000, the prison gained worldwide notoriety for

prisoner abuse Prisoner abuse is the mistreatment of persons while they are under arrest or incarcerated. Prisoner abuse can include physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, torture, or other acts such as refusal of essential medication. Physica ...

when the reports emerged of prisoners being routinely subjected to human gauntlet beatings, various forms of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

and other abuse, and their families to

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

at the hands of guards (a widespread practice of releasing prisoners, or even handing over their corpses, in exchange for ransom). A number of prisoners died from abuse or have "disappeared" without trace. Afterwards, Russian government engaged in what Amnesty International called a cover-up, before opening the prison for visits by foreign journalists and international observers. Prior to the high-profile visit by the Council of Europe's

Committee for the Prevention of Torture The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment or shortly Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) is the anti-torture committee of the Council of Europe. Founded to enforce the Europ ...

, the prison was turned from a "reception center" into a SIZO (investigative isolator) and freshly painted, a new prison staff from the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

were sent to replace the previous guards (who were reportedly contract soldiers), and conditions there improved notably, while torture victims have been relocated to other "filtration points". In October 2000,

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

released its 99-page investigative report about Chernokozovo, titled ''"Welcome to Hell"''. Since 2005, Chernokozovo detention center's status is of a "penal colony" for convicts, run by Interior Ministry forces of the local government led by

Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov ce, КъадаргӀеран Ахьмат-кӏант Рамзан, translit= (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician who currently serves as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated to the ...

, who is personally taking part in its management. Living conditions there reportedly have improved vastly since 2000, however still remained bad (for example, healthy persons are kept together with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

patients) and reports of continued beatings, torture and other abuse have persisted.

ECHR rulings

In 2007, in the first ruling on a torture case from Chechnya, the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

(ECHR) found Russia guilty of torturing the Chitayev brothers, Adam and Arbi, at Chernokozovo during their detention between April and October 2000, finding "that their suffering was particularly serious and cruel". Among various other forms of abuse, the brothers were subjected to electric shocks, suffocated with a cellophane bag and a gas mask, and had parts of their skin torn away with pliers. in 2003, Zura Bitiyeva, a female former Chernokozovo detainee who had filed a case with the Court relating to her torture, was

summarily executed A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

together with her family during a raid by a group of unidentified masked men. In a 2008 ruling, the Court ruled that Bitiyeva's illegal detention in Chernokozovo and the

inhuman and degrading treatment Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention ...

she suffered during detention had been in "total disregard of the requirement of lawfulness", and blamed the Russian state for her and her family's subsequent murder.Russian Federation – Amnesty International Report 2008

References

External links

* Amnesty International {{coord missing, Chechnya 2000 in Russia Internment camps History of Chechnya Military prisoner abuse scandals Police brutality in Russia Prisons in Russia Torture in Russia War crimes of the Second Chechen War Wartime sexual violence Prisons in the Soviet Union