MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Father of Russian citizen Maria Butina, who is charged with illegal activity as a foreign agent in the United States, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to monitor the situation surrounding his daughter case, the vice president of Russian division of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Ivan Melnikov, said.
"Valery Viktorovich asked the president to personally deal with the situation surrounding Maria Butina's case and provide aid to U.S. lawyers, who defend his daughter in court," he told Interfax on Wednesday.
Valery Butin said in the petition that his daughter had been tortured in the U.S. prison, Melnikov said. "Repeatedly bringing her in a solitary cell, she was not permitted to sleep in the prison and was awaken every 15 minutes and was held in a cold cell and was denied medical aid and was subjected to humiliating searches with unclothing," Butin said in his petition.
In this connection, he said he has been unconvinced that an ordinary person can withstand such torture, without admitting nonexistent guilt.
Butin has earlier asked Russian division of the UN Human Rights Committee to help her daughter's lawyers in the U.S. to protect her rights and interests.
On July 16, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Butina, 29, with "criminal conspiracy" and "working as a foreign agent [in the United States] without the proper notification of the Attorney General's Office."
According to investigators, Butina conspired to promote Russia's interests in the United States starting in 2015. Allegedly, she acted as an agent for a Russian official and used personal contacts with an American who had influence on U.S. policy.
According to Melnikov, police seized all of Butina's correspondence and electronic memory cards of the past eight years, approximately 12 terabytes of data.
She pleaded not guilty.
Butina was put in a solitary cell immediately after her arrest, but on September 22, the Russian embassy to the U.S. reported that the administration of the prison in the town of Alexandria had moved her to the general population. Butina could then sleep normally, take exercise, and communicate with other inmates.
Meanwhile, Butina contacted her father and said that she had been held in a solitary cell already for a week, and that she had been permitted to take walks only between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., Melnikov said yesterday.
A petition asking to interfere in the situation with violating the Russian woman's rights was also sent to Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, Melnikov said.