The Novotroitsk Prosecutor’s Office (Orenburg region) affirmed the indictment to former head of colony-settlement No. 11 Filyus Khusainov and his deputy Murat Kumarov who are charged with committing sexual battery performed by a group of persons by previous concert and with abuse of office. The criminal case regarding the convicted persons was taken to court to be considered on merits.
Colony-Settlement No. 11 of the department of Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation in Orenburg region caused the interest of human rights defenders from the Committee Against Torture as early as in summer 2013. At that time Irina Balashova applied for legal assistance and reported that her partner Sergey Nikonorov servicing his sentence in Federal Correctional Institution Colony-Settlement No. 11 for Orenburg region was trapped in unbearable and inhuman conditions created by the staff of the colony headed by Filyus Khusainov: convicts were systematically subjected to ill-treatment, including threats of sexual abuse. The treatment had been caused by Nikonorov’s refusals to work at construction sites, and his forced labor complaints were lodged with the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office. Based on these episodes former head of this penal institution Filyus Khusainov was sentenced to three years prison term in a standard regime penal colony.
(Filyus Khusainov)
In end of 2013 the picture of appalling abuse of power in Colony-Settlement No.11 was supplemented by testimonies of convicts K. and D. (full names are not given due to ethical reasons), who informed that they were systematically abused by the Colony’s officers. They wrote letters to the Orenburg branch of the Committee Against Torture out of desperation, since after the failed attempt to flee (motivated by batteries) one of them was raped by the convict from the so called «core group» in the presence of the Colony officers and at their order and this was recorded by the administration officers using the video recorder.
According to the version of the investigation, Khusainov was the organizer of the cruel execution arranged for convict К. as a punishment for his flee attempt. Later on the victim told the investigator the following: on 13 October 2013 Deputy Head of the Colony Settlement for Security and Field Work major Murat Kumarov took him to the punitive isolation ward. There he gave the order to other convicts to beat him. The victim was beaten severely, no one spared him, he fainted away several times. Kumarov helped him regain his consciousness by pouring cold water on him. Several employees of the correctional facility were watching this including Filyus Khusainov who was the head of the colony at that time. After the beating Khusainov gave the order: “Make them line up here!” and around fifteen employees of the correctional facility entered the room. Two convicts from the group of the activists who followed the orders of the colony administration employees were holding K., the third one was given the order to touch the face and lips of K. with his genitals and so he did it. Deputy Head of the Colony Murat Kumarov was recording all this with the dashboard camera. And only when the torturer said that the film is ready, they stopped to abuse K. and the employees of the colony broke up.
(Murat Kumarov)
At present time both persons involved in the case are under arrest and are expecting the proceedings at the detention facility. Let us remind you that recently the Novotroitsky City Court of Orenburg region has started the proceedings of another criminal case regarding Murat Kumarov, accused of receiving the bribe in the amount of 24 400 rubles. As it follows from the indictment, Kumarov received a bribe in the amount of 24 400 rubles from the convicted person for the permit to use the mobile phone and its accessories at the regime territory of the colony-settlement residential area which is prohibited at the penitentiary facility, and also to move freely at the territory of the colony and for the general protection.
Meanwhile another case was initiated regarding Filyus Khusainov for abuse of office (p.1 Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the RF). According to the version of the investigation, Khusainov ordered his employee to conceal the fact of the escape attempt of convict K. in order to avoid negative consequences in his service for the mistakes he made and defects of the work. Instead a faked report was prepared for convict K. for being supposedly arrested by the employees of the colony settlement for being drunk and showing resistance. As a result of this falsification K. was put into the punitive isolation ward and later the conditions of this service of sentence were changed to more severe ones.
Lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova, representing the interests of the victim: “The investigation performed grand work collecting and preserving evidence uncovering the guilt of former officers of the correction system. Representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office affirmed the indictment; the case is sent to The Novotroitsky City Court. The persons involved in this case face the sentence of a fifteen-year imprisonment”.