Images have appeared online purportedly showing patients being abused at an Ingush care home for people with intellectual disabilities.
Images shared by Russian Telegram channel Baza [WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGERY] showed naked patients shackled to benches and to the wall in an empty tiled room. Also shown in the images were metal bowls from which the patients eat from using their hands.
The facility in Psedakh, a village in northwestern Ingushetia, caters to people who are unable to care for themselves, as well as those requiring special medical and psychiatric care.
According to Baza, patients at the facility were made to look neat when family members visited in order to avoid questions about the institution’s quality of care. In addition, the channel said that many of the patients had impaired speech functions, hindering their ability to discuss what was happening.
Baza claimed that relatives of several of the victims as well as activists had previously attempted to convince the authorities to take action against the facility’s staff, particularly its former director, Magomed Daurbekov.
They said that while some junior staff had been suspended as a result, the abuse had continued.
Following social media backlash over the images of the abuse, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Tuesday that they had opened an investigation. They said investigators and forensic experts would visit the facility to investigate and question employees.
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