Beaten Russian student's sibling seeks Canadian justice
A Russian student remains in a serious condition in hospital, after being brutally beaten in a Canadian detention center. His sister told RT that authorities haven’t offered any help, while all she wants is justice and therapy for her brother.
Denis Telikov, 24, was arrested after his classmate said he had been threatened by him. The charges were then dropped and it turned out it was just a Facebook post. He has been in hospital since August 20 after the attack in a holding cell of the Calgary Remand Center. RT: What is your brother’s condition right now? Elena Romanova: Well, he’s getting better and day by day he’s making a lot of improvement, that’s what the doctors say. But he’s still lying down, he’s not eating on his own. He has a tube in his throat and he’s breathing through this tube. A full recovery is still a long way from this point you know. It’s a very slow recovery. RT: Now Denis was arrested after his classmate reported he was being threatened, in what way was that? ER: Well actually it wasn’t face to face, it was through a Facebook message, it wasn’t a direct threat. I don’t know why it was first a big misunderstanding. As you know the prosecutor dropped all charges. RT: Is this the first incident of this kind in the detention center? ER: Well absolutely not, it’s not the first time and it’s not the last time. The incident with Denis in the Rehab center is the worst – I mean the condition of his health.RT: What are the Canadian authorities saying about this and is anybody giving you help as a family? Is anyone helping you? ER: No, the Canadian authorities haven’t tried to reach me or say anything, they are not commenting. They are absolutely not helping me with anything. I only have social workers from hospital, who are giving me some support and help, that is it. RT: Now you said before there were other accidents that happened in this detention center, what others do you know of and can you put everything in perspective? ER: Well, yes it happened before. They tried to control this system over there. They tried to keep every criminal people separate from the people who are not criminals, it’s not happening over there and while Denis was in Intensive Care, there were inmates in the same hospital with different types of injuries and then it happened with Christopher Cook, after Denis, he was brutally beaten too and he’s in the same hospital now as Denis. So it is happening over there a lot, but they do not voice it, they try to hide it. That’s what’s going on over there all the time. RT: What would you like to say to the authorities right now?ER: You know, the most important thing I believe is that there has to be justice. Because he’s been beaten like that and he deserves to have rehab in here. He might not qualify because he’s not a citizen of Canada but there is a special governmental program and they can use it because I want to take him back to Russia, but they have to pay for something with what Canada did to him. I just want, I will insist to keep him in Canada for rehab because they are doing a good job. Doctors here are good and this is all I am asking. I don’t need money or whatever. I just want him to be back to normal health, I want him outside of Canada on his own feet.
