Watchdog

KAZAN -- Officials in the Russian republic of Tatarstan say another man has died in police custody.

Officials said the 49-year-old was serving an eight-day sentence for alleged drug violations when he died on May 14 in a detention center.

According to police, the death was caused by heart failure.

Officials say an investigation has been launched.

Tatarstan police have been under increased scrutiny since March after a 52-year-old suspect died after police in Kazan allegedly beat and raped him with a bottle.

Several police officers have been arrested and charged in that case, and Tatarstan’s Interior Minister Asgat Safarov resigned.

The case has led to a series of revelations about more cases of alleged beating and torture of suspects by police in Tatarstan and other Russian regions.

With reporting by Interfax

Human Rights Watch is reporting that Iraqis are still being illegally detained at a Baghdad prison that the Iraq government claimed was shut down last year.

Citing victims, witnesses, and government officials, the New York-based rights group says in a new report that Iraqi security forces have been "grabbing people outside of the law, without trial or known charges, and hiding them away in incommunicado sites," including the Camp Honor prison.

Says Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director for HRW:


It was officially announced one year ago that the facility, located inside the high-security diplomatic Green Zone, had been closed by Iraqi authorities.

Analysts say the Human Rights Watch report raises fresh concerns about the treatment of detainees in Iraq since the government took over the country's prison system following the departure of U.S. troops in December.

With reporting by AP