Russia: Activist Sent To Psychiatric Unit After Exposing Health Facilities

(RFE/RL) MOSCOW, August 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An opposition activist has been locked in a mental-health institution in Murmansk Oblast for criticizing health professionals, her husband and human-rights groups claim.

Dmitry Tereshin has hardly slept since July 5, the day his wife, Larisa Arap, telephoned him from the local hospital in Murmansk to say doctors were forcibly admitting her to a psychiatric unit. She had gone to the hospital for a routine check-up she needed to renew her driver's license.

"In my opinion, it may have been because of the article, because the doctor had read the article Larissa wrote," Tereshin told RFE/RL. "The article was entitled 'Madhouse,' and it revealed what goes on in psychiatric clinics."

Abuses Alleged In Children's Wards

Arap is a member of the opposition United Civic Front, headed by Garry Kasparov. In June, she wrote a story in a local newspaper that alleged barbaric practices at children's wards at psychiatric hospitals in Murmansk Oblast.

In her article, Arap claimed children were forced to kiss and massage the legs of staff members at hospitals, and were forbidden to walk around outside the ward more than once every two weeks. She also made allegations of child abuse, including rape, in the psychiatric wards.

Now Arap has herself been admitted to a psychiatric institution in the town of Apatiti, some 300 kilometers from Murmansk. Human-rights advocates say her detention marks a return to Soviet-era practices, when dissenters were commonly locked away in mental-health institutions.

Roman Chorny, an activist with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, flew to Murmansk this week to ask for a meeting with Arap.

"Unfortunately, Larisa Arap was not invited to take part in the conference [held between doctors, human-rights groups, and journalists]," Chorny said. "Representatives of the psychiatric unit said that Larisa Arap had apparently refused to talk to journalists and human-rights groups, which I find very hard to believe."

Doctors and local health officials have categorically denied any link between Arap's article or her political activities and her admission to the psychiatric unit.

"As far as I can recall, not a single patient has been admitted to this or any other hospital in the region for political reasons," said Yevgeny Yenin, the chief medical officer at the Murmansk Regional Psychiatric Hospital, where Arap is being held. "They are only admitted for medical reasons -- because they need medical attention -- and in accordance with the law."

Doctors say Arap has been hospitalized before with mental-health problems. Her husband confirmed that she spent two weeks at a psychiatric unit in 2004. But Chorny at the Citizens Commission on Human Rights says health officials are deliberately distorting the truth.

A Smear Campaign?

"This looks to me very much like a smear campaign, an attempt to discredit this person," Chorny said. "Even if she was hospitalized in 2004, the fact of her hospitalization doesn't mean anything. A person has the right to protect the rights of others and to write about conditions in psychiatric wards. Simply because she revealed this to the media does not mean she should herself be incarcerated in a psychiatric ward."

The Citizens Commission for Human Rights has made a formal complaint to the head of the regional administration and Murmansk's governor, and asked the region's prosecutor to look into the case. Under pressure from human-rights groups and the United Civic Front, Russia's human-rights ombudsman has also opened an inquiry.

Meanwhile, Arap's husband is making the seven-hour round trip to Apatiti to see his wife every couple of days.

"We're trying to get her out of there," Tereshin said. "But it involves a complicated legal process; a court needs to make a second decision on her case. There may have to be three, four, five decisions made. I don't know what will happen next."

The United Civic Front has called Arap's detention illegal and is demanding her immediate release.