Almost a month has passed since the publication of part of the huge archive of video evidence of torture in Russian prisons. During this time, the RF IC has initiated several criminal cases of abuse of office. The head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Saratov region and several other high-ranking employees of the regional department, as well as the head of the TB hospital OTB-1, where the prisoners were allegedly raped, were dismissed.
On October 19, the human rights project Gulagu.net reported on mass protests in correctional colony No. 13 (IK-13) in the city of Engels, Saratov Region. A week later, lawyer Snezhana Muntian said that about 400 prisoners from IK-13 signed statements about torture and rape by other prisoners and employees of the colony. Now the lawyer is conducting several cases of rape in the prisons of the Saratov region. Interview DW.
DW: There is varying information about the number of prisoners who complained of torture. What figure is reliable?
Snezhana Muntyan: The fact that 400 convicts wrote complaints about torture and beatings in OTB-1, as well as extortion of money in the colony itself, in the colony No. 13 in the city of Engels, Saratov region, was reported to me by a convict whom I visited last week. He said that about 50 people wrote such statements only in his unit. And there are several such units. The prisoners communicate with each other. According to his most conservative estimates, about four hundred convicts signed statements.
Snezhana Muntyan
As soon as I made this information public in the media, this morning there were comments from a member of the POC Denis Sobolev that there were 185 complaints about the conditions of detention. Prior to that, Denis Sobolev said that everything is fine, there were no riots … That is, it was previously hushed up how many complaints were received. Now there is nowhere to go, they decided to publish at least some figure. But I dare say that there are many more complaints.
– It must be difficult for prisoners to write complaints given the conditions in which they are…
– You have no idea how difficult it is for them. IK-13 is a rather scary place, very closed. There is a special regime. There are the same “activists” (prisoners who cooperate with the administration. – Ed.) approximately, as in OTB-1 operated. They run all the rules and beat the convicts.
You don’t have to go far. Last week I went to “my” convict, and he shows me bruises on his body. Here, he says, a week and a half ago I was beaten again. He said that after several months of being in this colony, he got used to systematic beatings. And he’s not the only one.
When these, let’s say, riots in the colony began, and inspectors from the prosecutor’s office arrived there to supervise the FPS, then the people (prisoners. – Ed.) have already been driven to a frenzy. They, without fear of anything, just took and wrote complaints. If before the prisoners were afraid, now, overcoming fear, they still write, write and will write. Believe me – their (complaints. – Ed.) there will be many more.
– The very fact that the complaints from prisoners were accepted, that it became known about them, this suggests that the controlling authorities want to understand the situation.?
– As I understand it, they simply had no choice. I had to announce at least some figure – 185 complaints. In fact, I believe there are many more. And why did they have to do this – because there has already been a fuss in the press, the public is outraged. I still don’t fully trust this figure.
– As far as I understand, you have long drawn the attention of the supervisory authorities to torture, but there was no reaction.
– There were really a lot of complaints about OTB-1. I have sent dozens of appeals to the authorized bodies. But all complaints were considered fictitious, there were no results. There were no checks either. Mass dismissals in the prosecutor’s office for supervision (for the Federal Penitentiary Service. – Ed.) of our city.
– How many criminal cases of torture of prisoners in the region are currently being investigated?
– I will definitely not answer this question. These cases are conducted by the Investigative Committee under the control of the central apparatus. They are in no hurry to divulge this information, to inform the public.
In my case alone, there are three criminal cases of rape and several cases of extortion of money. There is also a set of potential victims who suffered from the actions of the “activists” and the OTB-1 administration. We make statements. As a rule, these are people who are already at large and have nothing to fear.
– You notice that in connection with this scandal, your clients have a hope that the case will be sorted out and the perpetrators will be punished?
– Of course, now the guys have some kind of uplift. The bulk came out of the shadows, let’s call it that. They have ceased to be afraid. Indeed, there is hope for a bright future that all these atrocities and horrors will stop. God forbid that it was so.
The fight is still serious. Human rights defenders and lawyers are trying to help convicts so that their rights are respected, so that they are not tortured or raped. For some reason, the FSIN is not trying very hard to meet us, to put it mildly.
– You communicate with people who work in the FSIN system. How did they behave after this scandal? There are changes?
– Many employees of the UFSIN began to fear that in some way this situation could offend each of them. The bulk, of course, is afraid that they might be fired from the service. Really massive layoffs are going on, including in the Federal Penitentiary Service. This is a really big scandal. There is probably not a single person in the city who would not have heard of this.
– Saratov is some kind of special territory where such horrors take place in prisons, or is this a typical story for Russia?
– The situation is the same in many areas. And the Vladimir region, and the Irkutsk region and many other regions. For me, of course, as a resident of this region, this particular situation is special. When you face it directly for many years, you hear about it and you cannot do anything … Of course, this is a special situation.
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