Russian repression worsens, UN expert says, voicing fears for political prisoners

PHOTO CAPTION: A riot police officer stands guard in front of the Kremlin after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, in Moscow, Russia February 2, 2021. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) - State repression has worsened in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, a U.N. expert said on Tuesday, warning of arbitrary imprisonment and risks for more than 1,000 political prisoners.

"The country is now governed by a State-sponsored system of fear and punishment, including the use of torture, with absolute impunity," U.N. Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council,

The Bulgarian former Amnesty International investigator said in a report on Russia's rights record that oppression had intensified since the February 2022 Ukraine war began, with the number of political prisoners up to more than 1,300.

Many were jailed on fabricated charges, she said, noting a priest's seven-year sentence for a prayer against the war.

"They risk anything from death, like (opposition leader Alexei) Navalny, or really their health being completely taken away from them," she said on Monday ahead of her speech, noting greater use of torture and solitary confinement.

Russia did not respond to efforts by Katzarova to contact them for her research, she said.

Its seat was left empty at the U.N. council on Tuesday and its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russian officials say the West routinely exaggerates the extent of repression in Russia.

They say Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic prison of natural causes. Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya has accused Putin of having him killed, an accusation the Kremlin rejects.

A group of political prisoners freed in August alongside The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a major prisoner swap were to speak in Geneva later on Tuesday.

Katzarova is one of dozens of independent rights experts mandated by the U.N. to report on specific themes or crises. She is the only one reporting on one of the five states with a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.



(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)