The Novotroitskiy City Court (Orenburg region) continues to examine the case against former head of the Penal Colony Settlement No.11 Filyus Khousainov. He is charged with crime under item «а» part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF «Abuse of office performed using violence or threatening with violence». In the course of the latest hearing the defendant partially admitted his guilt.
(Photo: Filyus Khousainov, source: http://тюрьма56.рф)
As we have previously reported, according to Sergey Nikonorov, who had served a sentence in Penal Colony No.11 before, head of this penal institution Filyus Khusainov used threats and creating unbearable conditions to force him and other convicts to perform construction works at his summer cottage.
Member of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Vyacheslav Dyundin, representing the interests of Sergey Nikonorov, tells about the progress in the court proceedings: «The proceedings started in December of last year and the court examination is going on quite intensely with two hearings per week. All the witnesses and the victim have spoken. The defendant gave testimony during the last hearing. Under the pressure of uncontroverted witness statements, voiced in court, Khusainov agreed to the charges, but only partially. Having hung down his head, the defendant, at last, admitted the facts which he denied in the beginning of the proceedings: that he made a mistake using the convicts’ labor for personal advantage. At the same time Khusainov did not admit his guilt in the part of using a fire-arm for the purpose of the victim’s intimidation. Judge Rodygina asked him how then he would explain the fact that even before the traumatic pistol was confiscated from him the victim had been able to describe the gun’s appearance in detail – color, shape, size. Khusainov answered that he could not explain that.
The evidence, provided against him by Penal colony-settlement No.11 officers, Khusainov explained by their personal evil will against him. He, allegedly, often punished them for disciplinable offenses, thus bringing odium on himself. It has to be noted that only three witnesses provided evidence from the defense team, two of these witnesses were convicts, serving sentence in Penal Colony № 3 of Novotroitsk town, and the third – Aleksandr Nizhnikov – was once an officer of Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.2 of Orsk town, serving together with Khusainov. The contents of these testimonies should be considered as speaking against Khusainov’s arguments rather than in their favor. They did not disprove the prosecution’s arguments, since they did not know anything about the construction, but they told a lot about the regime established in the colony and supported by Khusainov. In particular, all the three witnesses described the procedure according to which all the convicts upon arrival are unofficially divided by casts, and not by the colony administration, but by the top-ranking convicts with the knowledge and acceptance of the institution’s officers. Nizhnikov frankly reported that he personally negotiated the fate of some of the convicts with the informal criminal leader. In fact, we are observing a growing bond between the Federal Penitentiary Service officers with the convicted criminals serving their sentence.
In addition, Khusainov dedicated a large part of his defense speech to humiliating remarks about the victim’s personality, apparently, thus trying to mitigate the severity of this crime. Filyus also failed to refrain from an outburst against the Committee for Prevention of Torture, the determination of which contributed to bringing him to justice. For example, he stated that it was human rights defenders who reported in the Internet about his illegal use of convicts’ labor. It is worth remembering that Khusainov applied to court with a suit to defend his honor in 2015 but he lost the case.
The end of the judicial investigation is expected on 14 April 2016, after which the participants in the proceedings with provide their assessment to all the provided evidence and the court will pronounce its verdict».