Story By: Arian Movileanu, Sub-Editor: James King,  Agency: Newsflash

A shaman who challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin has been locked up in an institution for the insane after travelling across the country to carry out an exorcism and “expel Putin’s evil spirit from the Kremlin”.

Alexander Gabyshev, from the city of Yakutsk in the far-eastern Russian republic of Sakha, declared that he wanted to drive Russian President Vladimir Putin from power while walking over 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) to Moscow, speaking to hundreds of people along the way.

He claimed that he was visiting the Russian capital to “expel Putin’s evil spirit from the Kremlin”, however, he was promptly detained and placed in a psychiatric hospital in the Siberian city of Yakutsk.

After his arrest in September 2019, Amnesty International called Gabyshev a “prisoner of conscience deprived of liberty solely for peacefully exercising his rights”.

The human rights NGO added that Gabyshev “has been made an enemy of the state solely for voicing his dislike of Putin”.

On 2nd June 2020, a court in Yakutsk extended his forced committal with no end date indicated.

Committing dissenters to psychiatric hospitals was a practice known as ‘punitive psychiatry’ during the times of the Soviet Union.

Last year, Gabyshev’s lawyers filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against his placement in the psychiatric hospital, according to reports.

One of his lawyers, Olga Timofeeva, told local media that he has again been diagnosed as insane and a danger to society by a Russian institution.

Timofeeva said: “According to the conclusion of the psychological and psychiatric examination, again and again carried out by experts, Alexander Gabyshev did not realise the nature of his actions and poses a danger to society and therefore needs compulsory treatment under close supervision. ‘Did not realise’, this means insane.”

The lawyer added that her client looks withdrawn and does not speak much, but considers himself mentally healthy and remembers all the events leading up to his arrest.

Gabyshev’s defence team disagrees with the latest conclusion and has filed a request for him to be re-examined in another institution which has to be considered within three days.

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