Russia: Journalist Maria Ponomarenko Reveals That She Was Tortured In Siberia When She Was Held For Pre-trial Detention

Location: Russia, Siberia

Date: July 15, 2022

Journalist Maria Ponomarenko has revealed that she was tortured in a psychiatric hospital in Siberia where she is under pretrial detention since April under the charge of spreading fake news about the Russian military. This news comes from an open letter that was published July 13, in which the journalist reveals that she was forcibly made to take unknown substances when she would ask for her personal belongings.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism demands that Maria Poromarenko be released and all charges against her be dropped. She should also be provided protection while in detention so that she is not subjected to horrible tactics like drugging with substances when she demands her rights.

The journalist shared in the open letter that she had no recollection of three whole days. She was made to undergo a “psychiatric evaluation” where she was drugged. 

She revealed that three Federal Penitentiary Service officers held her legs and arms, pushing her down on the bed, while a nurse injected her against her will. These torture tactics are horrifying to learn even more so because the psychiatric evaluations of criminal suspects do not include injections.

Journalist Maria Ponomarenko from Barnaul, the Altai region was moved from a detention centre to a psychiatric hospital, where she’ll spend next month. Maria was detained in April for writing about the situation in Mariupol;she was charged with ‘writing fakes about Russian army' pic.twitter.com/qM8UeRzMIm

— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) July 2, 2022

Punitive psychiatry is back in action. Arrested journalist Maria Ponomarenko wrote a letter saying that she had been forcefully injected with an unknown drug in a psychiatric clinic. https://t.co/WFOJMPVlW4

— Vladimir Kara-Murza (@vkaramurza) July 13, 2022

Journalist Maria Ponomarenko, arrested for "fake news" about the Russian Armed Forces, said that she was injected with unknown drugs

I wrote about this last year. Putin brought back Brezhnev’s practice of institutionalizing and drugging dissidents https://t.co/mbb5C8Yzvh

— Olga Lautman 🇺🇦 (@OlgaNYC1211) July 13, 2022

Pormomarenko was transferred from St Petersburg to Barnaul at the end of June. Her lawyer Sergei Podolsky said that she will be evaluated at the Altai Clinical Hospital for 28 days.

Progressive Russians have tweeted in support of Maria, highlighting that the Russian state has resorted to using torture techniques from Brezhnev’s days of instituionalizing and drugging dissidents.

These revelations are shocking because they show that the state is complicit in medical malpractice and the denial of freedoms for journalists to do their jobs. Maria was only allowed to meet her lawyers and no one else suggesting that imprisonment, isolation and now drugging are all torture tactics that the Russian state is using to prevent journalists from reporting.

Ponomarenko faces up to 10 years in prison for a Telegram post about the Russian bombing of a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in which hundreds of civilians were killed. A Russian law passed in March criminalizes the dissemination of "fake" reports that "discredit the armed forces." The CFWIJ condemns the use of force and demands that Maria is released and all charges against her are dropped. 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

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