Lawyer Says Activist Tortured To Death In Police Custody In Russia's Rostov-On-Don

Lawyer Irina Gak says her client, 40-year-old anti-war activist Anatoly Beryozikov, was tortured to death in police custody in Russia's southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don a day before his release. Gak said on June 15 that she visited Beryozikov a day earlier and noticed traces of electric shocks on his body, adding that her client told her that police officers had threatened to kill him. An officer at the police station said on June 15 that Beryozikov died by suicide. Beryozikov had been sentenced several times to 15 days in jail since early May on hooliganism charges stemming from his distribution of leaflets criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. To read the original story by RFE/RTL's Russian Service, click here.