Human rights activists ask the Prosecutor's Office to inspect detention facilities in Mordovia

Between 2006 and 2009, the “For Civil Rights” Committee received 303 appeals from prisoners serving sentences in Mordovian colonies.

More than a third of them complained of cruel treatment, beatings, and torture, some of which, according to the applicants, were systematic in nature, notes Kasparov.ru correspondent Sergey Gorchakov.

In the submitted materials, the prisoners report systematic, in their view, violations by the administration of the Mordovian penal colony IK-1. The convicts claim that on 17 April 2009, “staff of IK-1, while intoxicated, carried out a mass beating of convicts who were being held in a PKT (cell-type facility) and ShIZO (punitive isolation cell) due to regime violations.” As the applicants emphasise, “beatings and humiliation force the convicts from IK-1 to resort to extreme forms of protest: hunger strikes, and self-harm (cutting veins, abdomens).”

The prisoners state that the IK-1 administration violates the provisions of Article 91 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation: “complaints and statements regarding illegal actions by IK-1 administration staff to the Prosecutor's Office, courts, and human rights organisations are censored and often destroyed.” Prisoner claims regarding the censorship of complaints filed against the colony administration account for 32 percent of cases. In 11 percent of cases, prisoners complained that after filing a complaint, they were illegally penalised.

In 40 percent of the appeals, the convicts complained of “other instances of illegal imposition of penalties.”

In 31 percent of cases, prisoners complained about harsh working conditions and low pay. In 44 percent of cases, the convicts reported not receiving adequate medical assistance. There are also complaints about other violations of prisoners' rights.

The “For Civil Rights” Committee concluded that there is a need for an on-site prosecutorial inspection of the detention facilities located in Mordovia regarding the facts stated in the applications and, if confirmed, for holding the guilty parties accountable according to the law.

Human rights activists have asked the Prosecutor's Office to pay special attention during the inspection to SIZO-2 in Ruzaevka, and colonies IK-1, IK-3, IK-5, IK-7, IK-10, IK-11, IK-17, IK-18, and the medical-correctional institution LIU-19.

The Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Republic of Mordovia includes 17 colonies (of almost all legally established custody regimes) and three remand prisons located in Saransk, Ruzaevka, and Torbeevo.