Ildar Dadin, the Russian dissident who exposed systematic torture in a Russian penal colony, was transferred to a different prison to "protect his personal safety," Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has claimed.
A statement from Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service to the Presidential Council for Human Rights was released on the council's website on Friday. The document does not specify to where Dadin was transferred.
Russia's Meduza news outlet published a letter from Dadin in early November, where the activist claimed that systematic beatings and torture were taking place in Russia's Penal Colony No. 7 near the northern town of Segezh. The colony was visited by human rights activists, who said they had found evidence to substantiate Dadin's claims, and recommended that the activist be transferred to another facility.
The Federal Penitentiary Service carried out its own investigation into Dadin's allegations, but found that no abuse was taking place at the facility. Prison staff claimed that Dadin had been in a fight with his cellmate, and subsequently moved to solitary confinement.
On Dec. 5, Dadin's wife said that she believed her husband had been transferred to another penal colony in the Kirov region.
Ildar Dadin was the first Russian citizen to be convicted for repeated violations of the rules governing public demonstrations. He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
