YEKATERINBURG, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Police who searched the premises of a group treating drug addicts in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg say they have found people there who were held against their will.
“Four keys were found in a rehab center for men on Fabrichnoi Street, belonging to handcuffs. Also found were a few people who said they were taken there against their will and could not get out,” the police said.
Earlier, the police said they were raiding several premises linked to the Gorod Bez Narkotikov (City Without Drugs) group, looking for evidence, including at its main office, a drug rehab center, and at the home of one of the group’s directors.
The police said they were looking for “objects and documents” which could be of importance to an investigation.
Gorod Bez Narkotikov has already been the subject of three investigations into mistreatment of addicts undergoing treatment, including the death of one of them, Tatyana Kazantseva, who died earlier this year after being taken to hospital following treatment for addiction.
Kazantseva, 29, complained of feeling sick on June 10 and seven days later was taken to hospital where she died. According to a spokesman for the fund, Kazantseva died from meningitis.
A court later ordered Kazantseva's remains to be exhumed so that an autopsy could be performed.
Following her death, several criminal cases were launched against the fund for illegally detaining addicts and using force against them.
The news of the search was confirmed by the group’s head, Yevgeny Roizman. “A search has begun at the fund,” he said on his Live Journal blog on Friday.
The group said it will lodge a complaint against the search, their lawyer Anastasia Uderevskaya said.
