Yesterday, 28 October 2019, the Novotroitsk City Court of the Orenburg region continued judicial proceedings with regard to former Deputy Head of Penal Colony No.3 Evgeny Matytsyn, who is charged with abuse of office. In the course of yesterday’s court hearing it became known that on 22 October the court passed a ruling to provide protection to the witness for prosecution.

As we have previously reported, the prosecution claims that the criminal actions of Evgeny Matystyn who was supervising security and operational issues, resulted in concealment of severe crimes against person, preventing from their registration for a long time, which led to significant violation of rights and lawful interests of convicts T. and M., as well as to violation of the interests of the state and the society which are protected by the law. So called “blatnye” (tough guys) jabbed T. with a shank, and convict M. was incited to suicide only because they refused to pay for “quiet life”. The victims are sure that Matytsyn not only covered but also inspired these crimes.

This case, to a large extent, is a result of the work of the Committee Against Torture members. In the period from 2014 to 2017, Timur Rakhmatulin, Albina Mudarisova and Vyacheslav Dyundin, who were also members of the Monitoring Commission of the Orenburg region, received numerous complaints from Penal Colony No.3 convicts about battery, money extortion, incitements to suicide through systematic tortures. In addition, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture repeatedly registered with photo cameras bodily injuries on the convicts in the form of hematomas, bruises, extravasations. All the obtained materials were immediately submitted to the Investigative Committee and to the Prosecutor’s Office.

“In September of last year, two years after the first crime report was submitted, the Investigative Committee still initiated the criminal case based on the fact of setting up a criminal group by Evgeny Matytsyn on the territory of the penal institution, with involvement of the Federal Penitentiary Service officers and some convicts, who, according to the ruling on initiating criminal proceedings, were suppressing the psychic of the convicts, intimidated them, imposed the rules and customs of the prison subculture on them, including through battery, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Timur Rakhmatulin describes. – At the same time, what are we having at the present moment? The investigative authorities withdrew from criminal prosecution of Evgeny Matystyn in the part of abuse of office with the use of violence or threatening with its use, for which he might have got up to ten years’ prison term. Mr Matytsyn stands trial only for abuse of office, namely, for the fact that he tried to conceal the facts that severe crimes were conducted on the territory of the penal institution. We appealed against the investigator’s ruling on partial withdrawal from criminal prosecution of Evgeny Matytsyn, however, to no avail, because the investigative authorities severed the materials with regard to inflicting bodily injuries to separate materials of checks. However, I think it is possible that the court will use its authority to return the criminal case to the prosecutor to rectify such defects as: absence of the investigative authorities’ evaluation of the data on medical documentation falsifying and destruction by defendant Matytsyn, as well as a number of controversies not eliminated by the investigative authorities”.

During previous court hearings, paramedic of Penal Colony No.3 medical unit paramedic Marina Vorobyova was interrogated. It is during her shift that the incident with convict T. happened, when the so called “blatnye” jabbed him with a shank. She reported to the court not only the events of that day, but also confirmed that convict Matytsyn gave orders not to reflect in the traumas log the true reason of the convict’s applying for medical assistance, but to put there only the records that he instructed to include. The witness also reported that if the convicts’ injuries were registered in the log, the log was destroyed by the penal colony administration officers.

That is what Vorobyova told about one of the incidents happened in the colony: “I was sitting in the sick-room, when the medications were being distributed and people were put in the sick room. And we have a medical inspection room of our own there. Evgeny Evgenyevich (author’s note — defendant Evgeny Matytsyn did not know I was there. The convict was brought in when I was there. Five officers were beating him up. I’m just a woman, what could I do? And then Evgeny Evgenyevich saw me, and said: “Ah, it’s you? I did not know you were here”.

In addition, during the court hearing, Marina Vorobyova stated that she feared for her life. In the penal colony, recently she has been hearing barking: “We know what kind of evidence you provide against Matytsyn!” and “The town is small”. In addition, she reported that her former colleagues called her on the telephone and asked to talk about Matytsyn with former head of Penal Colony No.3 Viktor Viryaskin (author’s comment – at the present time Viryaskin is an Acting Deputy Director of the Department of Fire Safety and Civil Defense of the Orenburg region).

That is how Marina Vorobyova comments on the situation: “The town is small, you know. I fear for my life. When they called me and told me that Viryaskin contacted them and demanded that I provided some different evidence with regard to Matytsyn, I went to the police and told about it. I was told I would be provided protection if these calls persist. It was in August-September”.

In the course of the yesterday’s court hearing it has become known that on 22 October the court passed the ruling to provide state protection to Marina Vorobyova. In addition, the court applied to the Novotroitsk prosecutor to check the information provided by Vorobyova concerning the threats she was receiving and the battery of the convict by the penal institution officers.

Yesterday, the state prosecutor asked the court to alter the measure of restraint to the convict and change the prohibition of certain actions to taking into custody. The court dismissed the motion, since it has not identified any objective data confirming that Matytsyn violated the measure of restraint selected for him.

“I think that having provided state protection to witness Vorobyova, the court made a right decision, – human rights defender Vyacheslav Dyundin comments. – Marina Vorobyova’s evidence demonstrates that she knows better that anyone else what the people who violated the law under the guidance of Matytsyn are capable of”.