UFA, July 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russian authorities are investigating the legality of a rehab clinic’s supposed “treatment” of shutting addicts in coffins to give them “a sense of what is in store if they don’t stop using drugs,” the prosecutor’s office said Friday.
Former patients have accused the clinic of continuously beating addicts and shutting them in coffins to simulate death, Russian media reports said.
When questioned by prosecutors, the clinic's director said the "funeral" was a psychological treatment to show addicts their fate: “just a coffin and cold earth,” a prosecutor’s office representative told RIA Novosti.
The director “believes that, after the procedure, addicts [feel like they] are reborn,” the law enforcement source added.
Prosecutors in the Bashkortostan Republic, where the so-called Navigator rehab clinic is located, are planning to ask experts to assess the legitimacy and effectiveness of the "funeral" treatment.
Updated to clarify that it was not immediately clear whether patients were "buried alive" or simply shut in coffins. Also corrects clinic director's quote to "funeral."
