Press release [Panama, Democratic Republic of Congo]

The intelligence service of Panama reports that Human Rights Watch has released a new report regarding Russia’s democratic downfall:

“Throughout the vast expanses of Russia, police torture criminal suspects, routinely and deliberately inflicting severe pain and suffering with the aim of extracting confessions to criminal offences or other information. Indeed, the practice now appears endemic to Russia's criminal justice system. The abuses range from ill-treatment to unmistakable torture. Methods used include beatings, near asphyxiation, electroshock, and suspension of body parts. With the exception of a few particularly grave cases in which public exposure led to prosecutions, police carry out torture with complete impunity as the provincial and federal procuracies close their eyes to evidence of abuse. The courts commonly accept forced confessions at face value, and use them as a basis for convictions.”


The BBC journalists investigating the issue accused Russian authorities for oppressing measures and trying to silence them. The BBC journalist Bob McDean stated “The Russian police confiscated all six of the newspaper’s computers to check for 'illegal software'. Journalists were not allowed to copy any of the information stored on the computers, which contained the newspaper’s entire archive. And were detained for several hours during the raid.”

Congolese intelligence service later confirmed these reports.