UCSJ is very concerned over the health of Mrs. Larisa Kharchenko of St. Petersburg, Russia, who has been detained in a Moscow prison since July 8, 1997, without a trial. She has been held because of her refusal to give false testimony about former St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, for whom she worked as an advisor on housing matters. Kharchenko has been refused treatment for her high blood pressure (hypertension, stage IV), which has resulted in losses of eyesight and memory. Furthermore, authorities from the Procurator General's office have confiscated and destroyed her medical records, and they have made it difficult for her attorney to collect documentation for a pre-trial hearing. Her daughter Inna fears for her life.

We encourage all human rights activists to help Mrs. Kharchenko by signing on to two action alerts on her behalf. Link to Amnesty International's Urgent Action Alert or Virginia Commonwealth University's International Human Rights Group SOS Appeal.

Bill Cohen, President of the Center for Human Rights Advocacy in Boulder, Colorado and UCSJ Board Member, who has visited Russian Pretrial Detention Centers and studied their role in the Russian Criminal Justice System, called Kharchenko's detention nothing short of torture. "Prolonged, incommunicado pre-trial detention under inhumane conditions is designed to coerce Ms. Kharchenko into implicating Sobchak for crimes he may never have committed. The UN Special Reporter on Torture in Russia, the Council of Europe, the U.S. Department of State, and even the Russian Interior Ministry that runs these prisons have all condemned this device. It preserves the most repressive element of the Soviet criminal justice system intact."

Cohen argued that Mrs. Kharchenko should be released immediately on bail or other conditions pending charges and trial for the non-violent crimes with which she is accused before her health deteriorates further. "Otherwise," he warned, "she will become another of the thousands of victims of these repressive tactics who die in Russian "SIZOs" (prisons) every year from disease, violence and overcrowded conditions."

"We are deeply disturbed by the Russian authorities' blatant disregard for Mrs. Kharchenko's health," decried UCSJ President Yosef I. Abramowitz. "Their withholding of vital treatments is a form of torture. That is why we urge members of UCSJ's Emergency Action Response Network to lend their voices in support of Larisa Kharchenko."

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