Reports indicate that on July 5th, 2007, Ms. Larissa Arap, a Russian journalist, opposition activist and member of the United Civil Front, was arrested and has been forcibly interned in a psychiatric hospital where, according to information received, she would be forcefully injected with drugs and would have been beaten and tied to a bed.
A month earlier, on June 8th, 2007, a opposition newspaper printed an article by Ms. Arap detailing the ill-treatment of children in psychiatric hospitals (particularly the use of electroshock and the rape and beatings of patients) in the Murmansk region, the same area where she was later detained. On July 18, 2007, a local district court signed an order for Ms. Arap’s compulsory treatment. Since then, she would be held in a ward for violent patients, where her state of health is an area of concern. It appears this detention is arbitrary and seems to be aimed at sanctioning her activities in favour of human rights.
LRWC ACTION
Letter by Darlene Kavka sent on Aug 2, 2007
