A Russian antifascist activist has fled to Finland after accusing the Federal Security Service (FSB) of torturing him, his lawyer said.
Ilya Kapustin was one of several St. Petersburg-based activists who have been kidnapped or tortured by security forces this year, Russia’s liberal opposition Yabloko said last month. Late in January, Kapustin recounted being electrocuted for nearly three hours by FSB officers as part of an interrogation into a terrorism investigation, the Media Zona news portal reported.
Kapustin fled to Finland “as soon as the visa was approved” and asked the country’s authorities for asylum, Finnish media reported last weekend.
“He doesn’t intend to return to Russia,” Kapustin’s lawyer Dmitry Gerasimov told the RBC business portal on Wednesday.
Gerasimov wrote on Facebook that he had filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee against the FSB on behalf of Kapustin last month.
