Report on Torture

The monitoring was carried out over a period of 30 months in 2010–2013 in all facilities of the Chelyabinsk GUFSIN by a group of independent observers led by Nikolay Shchur, consisting of Dina Latypova, Valeriya Prikhodkina, Tatyana Shchur, and Nikolay Shchur — members of the Public Monitoring Commission (ONK) of the Chelyabinsk Region. In compiling the report, materials prepared by the entire group, as well as the Ural Democratic Foundation, were used.
The results of the monitoring are presented in a 129-page report illustrated with photographs from detention facilities, documents, and other materials. The report provides links to numerous online resources, including video recordings of testimonies from the prisoners themselves regarding the torture used against them.
Considerable attention in the report is paid to events in IK-6, since it was this colony in particular that became notorious across the country for the regime of severe humiliation of prisoners established there, and for an extensive system of systematic extortion of money and other material assets from the convicts held there and their relatives. The investigation of events in IK-6 is all the more interesting because a criminal case has currently been initiated and is being investigated regarding beatings and extortion at the colony, but the results of the investigation are strictly classified from the public.
In addition to recording instances of torture in GUFSIN facilities in the Chelyabinsk Region, the report provides examples and presents proposals for eradicating torture in the Russian penal system, analyses the causes of the use of torture, and highlights the positive experience of the observer group in saving the health and lives of prisoners.
Thanks to the support of civil society structures across Russia, the observer group has, to date, succeeded in resolving the key issue regarding the treatment of convicts in the region: bringing an end to the widespread use of torture. However, the overall situation, the mindset of the region’s penal system, and the mentality of its staff remain unchanged, judging by the ongoing mistreatment of prisoners in the female colony IK-5. In the disciplinary isolation cell (SHIZO), women are banned not only from using shampoo and moisturiser, but even a simple hair tie, while a comb is only provided for half an hour early in the morning. Furthermore, many prisoners complain about the lack of treatment for HIV and tuberculosis, or even the complete absence of timely and regular diagnostics, let alone treatment. Equally grotesque forms of humiliation exist in other facilities of the Chelyabinsk GUFSIN, and none of the staff who, in our view, mock and degrade people, have been held accountable, particularly among the management.
As of 12.00 on 8 August of this year, the report has been published online at www.uraldem.ru and sent to: the President of the Russian Federation, the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) of Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Presidential Council for Human Rights, the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, the Human Rights Commissioner for the Chelyabinsk Region, the Federal Security Service (FSB) Directorate for the Chelyabinsk Region, national media, and civil society activists.
The report was sent neither to the regional GUFSIN nor to the regional prosecutor’s office, as years of working with these systems have repeatedly convinced us of the complete unreadiness and inability of these departments not only to engage in dialogue with civil society, but also to perform their direct duties, for which they receive enormous funds from the people of Russia. Furthermore, all materials from our inspections, our reports, certificates, and proposals on the basis of which this report was compiled, have been regularly and promptly submitted to these departments throughout these years. There was, and remains, virtually no reaction to them (the prosecutor’s office, for instance, forwards complaints about jailers’ actions to the jailers themselves for review). For this reason, we see no practical sense in appealing to these departments, hoping that both the state structures above them and public opinion, to which our report is primarily addressed, will FORCE them to do their job.
Ural Democratic Foundation
8 August 2013