In April 2017, Deputy Head of Penal Colony No.11 of the Orenburg region Murat Kumarov was convicted to five and a half years of standard security penal colony: he was recording with a video camera how the “active core” convicts subject the delinquent convict to sexual abuse at his order. A year after Kumarov’s confinement conditions were softened. In the beginning of December 2018 the court satisfied his motion about release on parole.
In the beginning of May 2016, the Novotroisky City Court of the Orenburg region sentenced Filyus Khusainov, former head of Penal Colony No.11 to three years of prison time in standard security penal colony. It became possible to open the case against Khusainov and bring it to court due to evidence from convict Sergey Nikonorov, who told journalists, human rights defenders with the Committee Against Torture and the investigator how Khusainov, using threats, forced him and other convicts to get involved in construction of his summer cottage.
In case of refusal, the head of the penal colony created the unbearable conditions for the convict – sent him to punitive confinement, applied pressure via the “active core” convicts who cooperated with the administration, and imposed various penalties, depriving from opportunity of release on parole. “And this was happening all the time – penalty, punitive confinement, you get out, complain, punitive confinement again. Most often it was like that – they put you in a detention cell, in a dirty ward, with nothing to clean it with. Then some officer comes in: “It’s dirty here”. Another five days. Then another ten. And it comes to a point when you keep staying there, without understanding what for, already”, — Nikonorov recalled.
As early as in a month after the verdict, the regional Investigative Committee initiated another criminal case — this time about sexual battery in the colony. In 2012, convict Aleksey Ivanov (the name is fictitious), thinking that his health prevented him from working, started to complain to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office about forcible hard work. After another application the “active core” convicts broke the man’s ribs, the splinter affected his heart.
Having returned to the penal colony after hospital, Ivanov decided to escape. On 13 October 2013, he realized his plan and managed to go as far as several dozens of kilometers before he was captured by the Federal Penitentiary Service officers. Then, at orders of deputy head of colony for security and operational work Marat Kumarov, the runaway was taken to the punitive confinement room. There, according to the Investigative Committee, the convict was thrown on the floor, his clothes were torn off and three convicts were called who started to beat up Ivanov.
According to Ivanov, when he was losing consciousness, Kumarov used to pour a glass of water on him. Head of the colony, Khusainov, was watching what was going on. After the battery, about dozen more Federal Penitentiary Service officers entered the room and stood around Ivanov in a semi-circle. The convict was put on his knees, his hands were brought behind his back and the head was forced down, and Kumarov turned on the service video camera, ordered one of the convicts to give him his cock to suck. The latter objected that he was afraid that Ivanov might bite and injure him. Then Kumarov suggested that he touched the lips of the victim with his cock. The member of the “active core” fulfilled this request; at that moment the deputy head of the colony moved the camera closer to the face of the victim. “Do you know why you became a faggot? Because you were complaining against us”, — major Kumarov later on explained to the victim.
Soon after the case under item “a” part 2 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code of Russia was opened (violent actions of sexual nature committed by a group of persons by previous concert) and item “a” Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code (abuse of office using violence or with a threat of its use), Kumarov was taken into custody: the investigators believe that he abused his authority during the discharge of one’s duties and “organized the convicts and personally gave them illegal orders to apply violent actions of sexual nature with regard to the person serving the punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty in the penal colony, aiming at suppressing his morale, intimidating and forcing the rules and usages of prison subculture, using violence”.
Same charges were brought against former head of colony Khusainov. Later on, he was also charged with abuse of office (part 1 Article 285), and Kumarov was charged with taking the bribe (part 3 Article 290).
Although the Ivanov case was not the only one — at least one more convict submitted a complaint about sexual battery to the Committee Against Torture — only this episode reached the court. The verdict was announced on 5 April 2017: taking into account the previous prison time Khusainov was sentenced to seven years of the standard security penal colony, and his subordinate – to five years.
Kumarov, who was kept at the detention facility since May 2016, was moved for serving his sentence to standard security Penal Colony No.13 for former law-enforcement officers in the end of August 2017. In mid-September 2018, the conditions of his confinement were softened and he was sent to the colony-settlement, and as early as on 7 December his motion on release on parole was satisfied.
As it follows from the ruling of the Tagilstroyevsky District Court, Kumarov did not have any penalties either in detention facility, or in the penal colony, upon arrival to which he was not employed “due to absence of the work scope” — instead of working he spent no less than two hours per week for housekeeping of the colony territory. During his stay in this institution, former Federal Penitentiary Service officer received five recognitions from the administration.
After he was moved to the colony-settlement, he did not perform a single violation either, and received one more recognition. “He responded correctly to awareness-raising measures, he visited the educational activities regularly, followed the daily routine, his appearance was tidy, his haircut was neat, he observed the rules of the personal hygiene, he kept his sleeping accommodation and a bed-side table in cleanliness and tidiness, he was wearing the clothes of the of the standard pattern with a lapel badge, he was polite with other convicts and with penal colony officers and other persons, he treated the colony property and other types of property with care. <…> He took part in psychological surveys, there were no refusals, his nature was calm, not aggressive, he had high level of activity, he was polite and regardful with the colony administration”, — the judge listed Kumarov’s merits, when passing the ruling on release on parole.
Neither the prosecutor, nor the administration of the institution opposed his release on parole. The only objection was received from victim Ivanov and his representative Albina Mudarisova, who explained that Kumarov did not acknowledge his guilt, did not repent, did not provide apologies to the victim and did not compensate the damage inflicted to him. However, in his ruling the court pointed at some “application” which the convict submitted on 18 September 2018, in which he “fully acknowledged his guilt in accordance with the court verdict and repented what was done”.
Neither the victim, nor his representative saw Kumarov’s application. “It is the first time in my practice that I see the acknowledgment of guilt via an application. This is something new in the world of law. It is also unclear, how exactly the court established that Kumarov repented what was done, all the more so, as it is put in the ruling, Kumarov himself did not indicate his willingness to take part in the court session. It is worth noting that the court did not take into account the victim’s opinion, either, who steadfastly objected to satisfying the motion of the rapist in uniform”, — Mudarisova comments.
The ruling for Kumarov’s release on parole has not yet entered into legal force. The victim’s defense team will appeal against it at the Sverdlovsky Regional Court.