Imprisoned Russian activist Anastasia Zinovkina has detailed experiences of humiliation and abuse by prison staff at Rustavi Prison No. 5, including being left alone for eight hours unable to stand or move.
Her comments were shared via a Facebook post by Georgian activist Natia Gabrava on Thursday, who stated that she had spoken with Zinovkina via phone call.
Zinovkina was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison on drug charges in September — her defence team claimed the drugs were planted on them. Zinovkina and her partner Artem Gribul, who was also sentenced to the same time in prison as part of the same case, were active during the still ongoing anti-government protests, and often offered coffee and tea to the protesters on Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue.
Mariam Nikuradze
According to Gabrava’s post, Zinovkina suffers from ‘serious spinal problems’, and is only given painkillers as opposed to real treatment. She has also been refused an orthopaedic mattress and pillow, despite having previously been promised them.
Gabrava wrote that Zinovkina’s condition worsened on Tuesday — in response, the doctor gave her an injection that morning.
‘At 12:30, her lower back seized up — she couldn’t stand or move. She screamed for help for eight hours, but no one came’, Gabrava wrote.
Zinovkina is reportedly in solitary confinement, meaning there were no other prisoners around to help her. Gabrava wrote that while guards opened the hatch in the prison door, they told Zinovkina that they could not do anything. When Zinovkina missed her slot to shower, the guards allegedly wrote in the prison record that she had ‘refused to shower’.
‘In reality, she simply couldn’t stand up. For eight hours, she lay on the floor, unable to reach the toilet’, Gabrava wrote.
‘At 21:00, a nurse entered, threw a diaper at her, and left without helping. When Anastasia tried to put it on, she fell to the floor and lay there until midnight. At [that point], staff finally entered and lifted her back onto the bed’.
Gabrava noted that once again prison staff reported in the official log that Zinovkina ‘did not appear for the evening roll call for unknown reasons’.
‘At 6:00 [on Wednesday], [Zinovkina] managed to crawl to the toilet, make herself a makeshift corset from torn fabric, and call to tell what happened’, Gabrava wrote.
At 10:00, the doctor visited Zinovkina again, telling her that she needed a neurologist, but that the only thing she could provide was a stronger painkiller, which would need a psychiatrist’s approval.
Gabrava wrote that at this point the call was cut off.
‘This is not neglect — it is torture. Anastasia Zinovkina urgently needs medical help and international attention’, Gabrava concluded her Facebook post.
Zinovkina is not the only detained protester to have complained of humiliating circumstances related to poor health conditions while detained by Georgian authorities.
In August, Tbilisi City Court approved a request from prosecutors to involuntarily transfer detained teacher and activist Nino Datashvili to a psychiatric facility for a twenty-day evaluation. Datashvili’s lawyers said that the move — which was based on medical records showing that Datashvili had undergone spinal surgery in 2019 and had since suffered from serious conditions, with worsening pain in recent years — was an attempt to discredit and stigmatise her.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
On Thursday, the court replaced Datishvili’s pre-trial detention with bail after her spinal condition sharply deteriorated.
‘ “It feels like my back is breaking!” — Nino Datashvili’s voice is heard in the courtroom. “Please, could someone bring me a chair so I can rest my legs? I can’t stay still otherwise; I’ve had an injection”, Datashvili’s voice is heard in the courtroom’, RFE/RL reported
The court set bail at ₾5,000 ($1,800), which activists reportedly raised within 10 minutes.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
