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Investigators find no evidence of torture against jailed activist Dadin

Investigators also established that penalties imposed on Dadin were "legal and justified."

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

PETROZAVODSK, December 1. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee has found no evidence to support jailed activist Ildar Dadin’s reports of torture, the committee regional department said Thursday.

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"The convict’s statements have been thoroughly studied during a pre-investigation check and were not confirmed," the press service of the Investigative Committee’s office in the northwestern Russian Republic of Karelia said in a statement.

According to the forensic expert’s report, a medical examination revealed no signs of torture.

Investigators also established that penalties imposed on Dadin were "legal and justified."

Dadin, 34, is the first person in Russia sentenced for violation of Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code (repeated violations of the rules of public gatherings). In December 2015, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Dadin guilty on four counts of participating in unauthorized protests in Moscow.

Dadin was sentenced to three years in a penal colony but then the Moscow City Court reduced his jail term to two and a half years.

The media earlier publicized Dadin’s letter in which he claimed to have been tortured in the Segezh colony in Karelia. After that, Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatiana Moskalkova requested the Federal Penitentiary Service authorities and the Prosecutor General’s office to look into this case. The Karelia Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the regional Investigation Committee also initiated investigations.

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