Police Raid Rehab Clinic Accused of Beating Patients

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Yevgeny Roizman, founder of the City Without Drugs Foundation, alongside part of his art collection

Police raided thewomen's quarters ofa Yekaterinburg-based drug rehabilitation center Sunday after investigators accused thecenter ofbeating andillegally detaining patients.

"They're taking thewomen's center bystorm. Thirty guys fromthe Interior Ministry's rapid-response unit. They tried tosmash inthe door but weren't able to. Thegirls [patients inthe center] opened it themselves," Yevgeny Roizman, founder ofthe Center Without Drugs Foundation, wrote onhis LiveJournal page.

According toRoizman, police detained three female patients andone male patient over thecourse ofthe raids.

Thehead ofthe press service forthe local branch ofthe Interior Ministry, Valery Gorelykh, later confirmed toRIA-Novosti that raids were taking place "in aso-called rehabilitation center" inconnection with anopen criminal case onkidnapping charges.

Gorelykh said officers had sawed down thegrille anddoor ofa cell andseized akey fora set ofhandcuffs. He added that officers had found seven girls inthe center.

Police have been searching City Without Drugs Foundation centers since June 17, when one ofthe center's female patients died after being hospitalized.

Roizman has claimed that police pressure is the authorities' way of harassing him for his opposition views and said thepatient's drug dependency was toblame, writing onhis blog that her immunity was low as she used heroin andkrokodil (a homemade opiate).

"She injected forseveral years. Heroin. Andkrokodil forthe last year. She was ill with everything andhad no immunity. All this andwith two children," he wrote onLiveJournal.

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Police Raid Rehab Clinic Accused of Beating Patients