НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+

The Angarsk City Court began considering a criminal case against six prisoners and two employees of the pre-trial detention center no. 6. They are accused of sexual assault (part 2 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, all of the defendants were involved in sexualized violence against prisoners: by such acts they wanted to get a confession from the victims in organizing a riot in the Angarsk colony in 2020.

According to the case file, six «activists»* beat the prisoners and used sexualized violence against them. These are Aleksandr Aniskov, Vladimir Shleyning, Jean Lapin, Evgeniy Stasyuk, Vladimir Reshchikov and Anton Ovsyannikov. Other two defendants are two staff members of the pre-trial detention center no. 6 — the shift supervisor Vasiliy Lukovskiy and deputy head of the regime and supervision unit Dmitriy Baroyan. They did not take an active part in the sexualized violence, but at least one of them was present. These officials were also charged with excess of authority (part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code).

The materials of the criminal case show that currently, five prisoners and one former officer are in custody, the second one is under house arrest. Another defendant from among the prisoners, Anton Ovsyannikov, took part in the special operation**, where he was killed.

Eight people were recognized as victims in the case. They had been transferred to the pre-trial detention center no. 6 of Angarsk after a riot in the Angarsk colony in April 2020. At the center, according to the men, they were beaten in order to get a confession in organizing that riot or information about its instigators. Some of them were subjected to sexualized violence by these «activists», who forced them to incriminate themselves. According to the victims, the perpetrators used, among other things, a handle from a mop. The interests of the victims are represented by the CAT lawyers and the Foundation «In Defense of Prisoners’ Rights».

One of the victims in the case of ill-treatment (his name is withheld at the request of that individual) told the CAT lawyers that after being transferred from the Angarsk colony he was beaten by prisoners Aniskov, Lapin and Shleyning. They also used sexualized violence against him, and Mr. Lukovskiy, an employee of the center, systematically beat him with a wooden mallet. The incident took place in a storage room. This is a small room on the second floor where household equipment is stored, in particular mops, which, according to him, were used to rape prisoners.

Commentary by lawyer of the Crew Against Torture: «This criminal case is one of ten initiated in the wake of the torture of prisoners from the Angarsk colony. Most of these are cases against “activists” who ill-treat inmates. They commit such deeds with the permission of the authorities and, often, with the direct participation of the latter. At the same time, the charges against officials appear only in three cases. In two of the cases, there have already been sentences ranging from 5 to 11 years in prison. The cases from Angarsk and Irkutsk are among the largest court trials devoted to torture in recent decades. However, the trials pass unnoticed by society and without fundamental conclusions and changes in the penitentiary system.»

^{* «Activists» – prison inmates who openly cooperate with the management of a penal facility.}

^{** We are forced to call the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine a special operation, as this is required by the legislation of the Russian Federation.}