RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Persecuted Siberian shaman gets international support

"MEMORIAL" RECOGNIZES YAKUT SHAMAN ALEXANDER GABYSHEV AS POLITICAL PRISONER

Website of Memorial Human Rights Center, 25 June 2020

 

The Memorial Human Rights Center considers Alexander Gabyshev to be a political prisoner, according to the international leadership, based on the definition of this concept. The denial of liberty has been applied to him exclusively because of his political and religious convictions, in addition to his nonviolent exercise of freedom of movement, expression of opinion, peaceful assemblies, conscience, and religion. We urge his immediate and unconditional release and complete rehabilitation and compensation for damages.

 

Who is Alexander Gabyshev and of what is he suspected?

 

The hereditary shaman from Yakutsk, Alexander Gabyshev, undertook three journeys by foot to Moscow and he was planning a fourth, in order to conduct there a ritual of exorcism of the "demon" Vladimir Putin.

 

On 12 September 2019, a criminal case was opened against Gabyshev for public calls for extremist activity (part 1 of article 280 of the CC RF). This is how the investigation views Gabyshev's statements on YouTube videos about the journey to Moscow taken on 6 to 22 May 2019. According to his attorneys, the investigation deliberately took Gabyshev's words out of context. Despite the fact that the case was opened back in September of last year, the shaman has still not been charged.

 

On 12 May 2020, under the pretext of testing for coronavirus, Gabyshev was isolated in a Yakutsk republican psychoneurological dispensary. On 2 June, by decision of the Yakutsk city court, he was kept there for involuntary hospitalization allegedly because of severe psychiatric disorder.

 

Why does Memorial consider him a political prisoner?

 

Just as soon as Gabyshev became known, authorities began interfering with his exercise of his rights. The criminal case was opened after a rally in his support by members of his entourage, and the hospitalization was conducted after his declaration of the start of a new journey.

 

Physicians and representatives of the government speak about Gabyshev's hospitalization in political terms, clearly linking it to the growing popularity and public influence of the shaman.

 

Not one of the reasons established by law for compulsory hospitalization has been convincingly proven. The circumstances of hospitalization and the medical examination testify to the absence of such reasons. The court that made the decision regarding involuntary hospitalization of Gabyshev also did not examine the situation completely and objectively.

 

The inability of the investigation to indict Gabyshev in a criminal case within nine months testifies in favor of his innocence. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 June 2020)


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