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Protesting Torture, Inmate Asks Putin to Revoke His Citizenship

Pravo Osnova / YouTube

An inmate at a Russian prison has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to strip him of his citizenship in protest against torture allegedly carried out at the detention facility, the “Pravozashitniki Urala” human rights group said on Tuesday.

Zakhar Gritsak, an inmate in a prison in the Sverdlovsk region published a video to YouTube addressed to Vladimir Putin asking the president to strip him of the Russian citizenship.

“I request that the president of Russian Federation revokes my Russian citizenship,” Gritsak said in his address. 

Gritsak said he was making the appeal because he and his fellow inmates were being subjected to routine mistreatment at the facility. "My rights being are violated. I was tortured,” he said in the video.

Gritsak, who has been serving his term in the notorious facility in the city of Nizhni Tagil, recorded the address with the help of the members of the regional commission overseeing penitentiary facilities.

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