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October 2009.
Denis Matveev: drug dependency is a disease, not a crime!
In July 2009, local newspapers in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, as well as official press agencies of Russian state institutions, such as the Ministry of Interior, published a series of articles, celebrating the success of law enforcement agencies in Naberezhnye Chelny regarding the arrest of the 32-year old “drug dealer” Denis Matveev. According to the press information, Denis was arrested in the course of a controlled purchase of nearly 0,631 gram of heroin, he allegedly acted as intermediary. According to media, during personal search in the course of the arrest another 0.575 gram of the same substance was found in his pockets. A criminal case against Denis Matveev was opened and he was imprisoned to pre-trial detention in Naberezhnye Chelny where he already spent over two months. The investigation has already transferred the case to the prosecution and the court, which is going to take place on November 19th.
The details of the case are not reported in the press, and there is no information if the accusation are based on thoroughly collected evidence. According to the statement of his lawyer, the drugs had been planted on him during arrest. This could very well be possible, as the practice of planting drugs is wide spread practice of Russian law-enforcement and has already been subject to criticism from the side of international human rights organizations. Another practice, widely applied in Russia, concerns the use of police provocations with the aim to arrest someone on a drug case. On the issue of provocation, Russian citizens have won a number of lawsuits against the Russian Federation at the European Court for Human Rights. However, it fully depends on the judge, how accurately the argumentation of the defence and the materials of the case are taken into account.
However, the current practice shows that drug cases are in general not examined in the advantage of the accused. A fair trial in a drug-related case, that would include the thorough examination of the argumentation of the defence by the judge, is a rare exception in Russia rather than the rule. In most of the cases the accused is found guilty and convicted to a maximum possible sentence, irrespective of the circumstances of the case, irrespective of procedural errors from the side of the policy and the department of public prosecution, or of the questions, whether there had been any gross and clear violations or provocations from the side of the police.
According to the Russian legislation the possession of heroin substance of any purity in amount over 0,5 gram (less than a daily dose for drug-depended) is considered to be a “large quantity”. Independent from the question, whether the prosecution will succeed to prove the guilt the accused, the possible sentence according to Denis Matveev’s lawyer can be up to 15 years of imprisonment.
Denis Matveev is one of the 2 million drug users in Russia that can be easily criminalized and imprisoned for their dependence, but he’s not an ordinary person. Denis was born and lived in Naberezhnye Chelny, and has dedicated his life to making his home town a better place. Denis has studied at the Faculty of History at Kazan State Paedagogical University and for a certain period his has lectured history at the Institute for Governance and Law. In the beginning of the 2000s, he has worked as a volunteer for the local charity organization “Trust”, which focused on the response to problems of drug users, as well as people living with HIV and other marginalized groups of society. Since his time as a volunteer at “Trust” Denis started to become a very active member of society. He realized that many problems that affect drug users and people with HIV and aggravate social grievances are inseparably connected to the problems of corruption and human rights violations from the side of state agencies. In order to deal with those problems, Denis founded the human rights organization.
The stories of his activities have been spread mouth-to-mouth. In April 2009 a policeman stopped Denis on the street and arrested him for not having his passport on him. After insisting on explanation for his arrest, Denis was sent to a clinic for a drug test. Similar things happen to tens of thousands of citizen and guests in Russia on a daily basis, but only Denis was courageous enough to demand that the policemen follow the legal procedures of arrest. Couple days after his release, Denis started a hunger strike – he set up a tent next to the building of the Department of Prosecution. With his protest he wanted to collect signatures from citizens’ in order to create for “a municipal commission on legal procedures”. But Denis’ protest was used as a pretext to arrest him again, as he did not have an official permission for the hunger strike.
In pre-trial detention, he faced another violation and acted upon it. Another person would probably not even bother about it, but for Denis it became a matter of principle. This is what Denis Matveev told the local newspapers: “When I got to the detention centre of the Ministry of Interior, all my personal belonging were confiscated, including my money. When five days later they returned the money to me I noticed that 125 roubles (4$) were missing. When I asked what happened to the money I was told that the money was taken to pay for food. I realized that this was wrong, but did not know now to prove it. I appealed to the municipal Prosecutor office, but the Prosecutor found no violations of law. With a help of a local parliamentarian we wrote a request to the Minister of Interior of the Russian Federation and it turned out that the money for detainees food (25 Rouble (0,8$) per person per day) was provided by the federal and municipal budgets. And only after the inquiry from the Ministry, they found a local document, which provided legal basis for robbing people in the pre-trial detention during past ten years: the decree “Concerning the expenditures for people in administrative detention” (Decree N. 416) was issued by the mayor of the city on 8 April 1999. This decree was now declared illegal and consequently amended.”
Denis is convinced: if he had not taken up this issue and involved the deputy, the authorities would have continued to charge detainees for the costs of their subsistence in detention. But after the review, which declared the decree of the major to be illegal, the prosecutor filed a protest. Since 28 May 2009 the respective document does not exist in Naberezhnye Chelny anymore. “However, I am also wondering how the people are going to be refunded for their money”, says Denis Matveev, who does not want to keep silent about the case. “I have calculated it; the overall sum is about 10 million roubles (350.000$). And will those be called to account, who have taken the money during all those years, and used it for their own purposes?”
However, today it is clear that the only person being called to account is Denis Matveev himself. He now happens to be in a situation thousands of Russian drug dependent people are confronted with every year. Recently, at a meeting of the State Security Council, President Dmitry Medvedev has called for a change in the legal practices concerning drug cases, which at the current moment are not focused on the prosecution of large-scale drug dealers, but predominantly on drug dependent people. With regard to the prosecution of crimes committed by drug users, Russia, according to the president, faces a number of shortcomings. The Head of State refers to the experience of other countries and proposes to consider the possibility of drug treatment as an alternative to imprisonment in less serious delicts. According to a statement of Victor Ivanov, Head of the Federal Drug Control Service, “a decision is taken in the way that we will review the whole complex of legislative questions, so that the drug addict can take a decision for himself, so that he himself can change his prison sentence into a voluntary drug treatment”. This practice of alternative sentencing in drug related cases is widely applied internationally. Last year, Russia was criticised by the International Narcotic Control Board in its annual 2008 report: “The Board notes that there is still no possibility for non-violent drug offenders in the Russian Federation to receive alternative sentences in lieu of imprisonment. The Board notes the provisions of the international drug control conventions on this issue, in particular article 3, paragraph 4 (b) and (c), of the 1988 Convention, according to which States parties may provide measures such as treatment, education, aftercare, rehabilitation or social reintegration in appropriate cases. The Board encourages the Government of the Russian Federation to adopt such measures .”
However, legally, a possibility to provide alternative sentencing already exists in Russia. In accordance to article 73.5 of the Russian Criminal Code, the judge has the possibility to impose administrative tasks on a conditionally convicted citizen, including undergoing drug rehabilitation treatment or other measures, contributing to his correction. The problem is that this possibility is not used in the juridical practice.
On the other hand, it is still an open question, what kind of drug treatment Russia is able to offer. A report of the international human rights organizations “Human Rights Watch” describes the situation of drug rehabilitation treatment in Russia as catastrophic. The absence of complex, accessible and anonymous detoxication, free-of-charge drug rehabilitation programmes, state support for organizations and self-help groups for drug users, who want to stop using drugs, is compensated by a large number of prisons. In our country we do not even have opiate substitution therapy – a programme, which elsewhere in the world helps people with opiate dependency. Substitution treatment programs have been scientifically tested. They are adopted in many countries in the world, where heroin addiction is widespread. Substitution therapy is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as an effective measure to respond to problems linked to drug dependency – illegal drug use, spread of HIV/AIDS, social marginalization of drug addicts, reduction of criminal activity, linked to the need to obtain illegal drugs and money.
In our opinion, the case of Denis Matveev clearly illustrates the situation in our country – people, who are dependent on drugs do not have access to high-quality treatment. In many cases the state puts them in a position that forces them to commit crimes. By this means, drug users end up in a vicious circle – the victims of the systems are made its scapegoats. The case of Denis Matveev demonstrates the pitfalls of Russian drug policy, which have affected about 2.5 million citizens of our country. Denis Matveev, however, is not an ordinary person. He is a person, who despite of his dependency has taken an active role in life; a person, who has stand up for the rights of people with the same problems; a person, who – without considering his own position – has made an effort to improve society and the state.
Regarding opportunities for drug rehabilitation, the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, is also not an ordinary and typical city in Russia. The city has a narcological clinic, where local drug users can undergo free detoxication, as well as a state-owned drug rehabilitation centre. This means that if found guilty on the charges and based on the assessment of the judge, Denis could be send to a drug rehabilitation programme in this institution, instead of serving a sentence in prison. Denis is in custody for already more than two months now. He has a mother, a sister, a wife and a 10-year-old daughter, who are waiting for him at home. Today, there are two possible developments in his case. Either, the judges and the local law enforcement agencies decide to thoroughly review the case and if the accusations are evidence based, to take an unusual, but progressive for Russia decision – to send Denis to drug rehabilitation treatment rather than a prison; or the case of Denis will develop in the same way as the cases of hundreds of thousands of imprisoned Russians, suffering from drug dependency.
We appeal to you to support Denis Matveev by signing this petition to President Dmitry Medvedev with the appeal to introduce alternative sentencing as well as to adopt measures to improve access and quality of drug treatment in Russia.
This petition will also be forwarded to the judge with the request to take into account the arguments of the defence and other materials concerning the court case and approach the case of Denis Matveev with attention and humanity, and in case Denis is found guilty on these charges, become one of the first judges to begin the so necessary in Russia work for the reform of the legal system regarding drug cases – to provide drug users with the opportunity to receive treatment instead of imprisonment.
Support Denis Matveev and all others, for whom this reform is indispensable!
Sign the petition, stand by us!
http://free-matveev.org/en/?page_id=2
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