Video footage emerged on Sunday that shows Russian troops torturing the men they arrested in connection with the Moscow terrorist attack, with one man given electric shocks to his genitals and another compelled to eat his ear.
In one photo, a suspect, Shamsuddin Fariddun, is seen foaming at the mouth as he lies on a gym floor, with his trousers lowered and wires fastened to his groin area. The wires are connected to a military radio powered by an 80-volt battery. In another video, a different man, identified as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, is seen having his ear cut off and then forced to eat it, as he spits it out.
Inhuman Torture After Arrest
The two suspects are among the four men who were arrested in western Russia following the terrorist attack on a crowded Moscow concert hall last Friday that resulted in the deaths of at least 140 people.
On Saturday, all four made a court appearance in the Russian capital, where they were paraded bruised and with cuts, as part of the authorities' efforts to convey a message to the shocked nation.
Fresh video footage from inside the Crocus City Hall venue in Krasnogorsk surfaced on Saturday night, showing people fleeing and seeking shelter behind tables while gunmen opened fire in the main lobby.
Screams can be heard as bullets relentlessly pierce through glass doors and kill people in what stands as the most fatal assault on Russia in recent years.
The four men suspected of terrorism, who have been identified and pictured in Russian media, were seen arriving in an unmarked white van before entering the concert hall around 8 p.m.
Photographs show suspect Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda with a bandage wrapped around his severed ear as he sits behind a glass partition at the Basmanny district court in Moscow. Any confessions obtained after such methods of torture cannot be deemed reliable.
Previously, videos circulated on social media showing the suspects' arrest, with one seen trembling on his knees and confessing to orchestrating the attack.
Russian Style Torture
It appears that the brutal treatment of these suspects is intentionally being leaked to the media, as today's images were released to Telegram channels sympathetic to the security services.
A Telegram channel associated with the Wagner paramilitary force said that the image of Fariddun shows how "an ordinary interrogation takes place using a military field telephone TA-57, in common parlance 'Tapik'.
"By turning the coil...discharges are released through the wires... up to 80 volts, which in turn are connected to the prisoner by the fingers, ears or genitals...
"For best effect, the captured militant should be poured with water."
The photo follows an incident where one of the suspects had his ear cut off on camera with a knife during his detention in the Bryansk region on Sunday.
In a video, a Russian agent is seen trying to coerce the suspect into eating the severed ear, which he ultimately spits out.
Another video shows the same suspect with his head bandaged and his face bloodied.
The preferred method of eliminating 'traitors' by Wagner, led by former Putin associate Yevgeny Prigozhin, reportedly involved using a sledgehammer to the head, videos of which have also been released.
Human rights group gulagu.net - which highlights widespread torture in Putin's jails - said: "For more than 10 years, we have been consistently exposing torture and its systemic nature in Russia.
"It is obvious that sanctions for these tortures, as well as for the torture of Ukrainian prisoners, are given from the very top...
"The same as with Prigozhin using a sledgehammer... an executor of the will of the murderer and dictator Vladimir Putin. If there is all the evidence and [it] has been collected, why should the FSB torture the Tajiks?
"So that they take the blame and voice a version [of the atrocity] convenient for Putin and the FSB?"
This came as Russian authorities said that at least three children were among the 137 people who were killed, with the casualty count expected to rise as others sustained severe injuries.
Putin remained silent for an entire day before issuing a statement, indicating that the gunmen were captured while en route to Ukraine, where, according to preliminary reports, they had an opportunity to cross the border.
Yesterday, he lit a candle in a church at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence in remembrance of all the victims.
