Head of the Orenburg Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service refuses to apologize for grave crimes of his subordinates

News

21 September 2017

Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region Vladimir Andreyev refused to offer apologies to the convict whom ex-superiors of Colony-Settlement No.11 subjected to violent actions of sexual nature (subsequently they were convicted for that). The colony officers who were on duty on that day at this correctional institution were watching the tortures performed on the convict. And none of the witnesses of the crime reported this incident to the Prosecutor’s Office or to the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Previously we submitted an application to Vladimir Andreyev proposing to offer apologies to Sergey Nikonorov, who also suffered from criminal actions of former head of this correctional institution Filyus Khusainov. However, just like the previous time, head of the Orenburg Department of the Penitentiary Service motivated his refusal by the fact that the applicable legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide offering apologies.

Laywer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova: “Indeed, neither federal laws nor intradepartamental acts of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia oblige to offer apologies to the person who suffered from the crimes of the penal system officers.

However, there are two “buts”. Firstly, apart from orders and statutes there are simple norms of human ethics, principles of responsibility and professionalism. Secondly, if we are referring to those who are doing everything by the books, there is an order of the Federal Penitentiary Service Russia for the Orenburg region No. 182, which states that the head of the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service takes personal responsibility for implementation of the state policy in the established sphere of activity. 

Being absolutely sure that the state policy does not correlate in any way with tortures and humiliations, which were in practice on the territory of Colony-Settlement No.11, we applied to head of regional Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Vladimir Andreyev, proposing that he offered apologies to citizen K. who suffered from violent actions of sexual nature done by ex-superiors of this correctional institution Filyus Khusainov and Murat Kumarov. However, we received a refusal.

Besides, we offered our assistance to the superiors of the regional Federal Penitentiary Service in conducting educational seminars for the institution’s officers on the theory of human rights and its inadmissibility in the course of the service activity. However, Vladimir Andreyev declined our help, indicating that corresponding profile services of his institution have “quite experienced specialists”.

As you may remember, Mr Andreyev and his deputy Vitaly Litt once provided ex-head of the same Penal Colony No.11 Filyus Khusainov with good conduct certificate – it occured during the examination of the criminal case against this, apparently, “quite a qualified specialist”.

Here are some quotes from characteristics of Mr Khusainov: “with good faith was performing his professional duties”; Mr Khusainov “performed work on enforcement of law and order in the establishment… in the sphere of crime prevention”; “operational situation in the establishment remained under control and manageable”.

Such evaluation of Mr Khusainov’s activity by the superiors of the regional Department is by all means strange and leads to two alternative conclusions: either Mr Andreyev was not aware about what was happening in the penal colony, or this situation is normal for him.

At the same time, the Novotroitsky City Court of the Orenburg region established that this abuse of official power is by all means far from norm, and indicated in the verdict that the crime, committed by Khusainov, led to “led to erosion of authority with regard to Penal Colony No.11, as well as to the whole system of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation”. In addition, this crime “formed the opinion of the population about the overindulgence and impunity of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation officers and led to lack of confidence of the citizens to the state as a whole”. 

With regard to the principal stance of the superiors of the Orenburg Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service who do not intend to offer apologies to the people who suffered from the criminal actions of their subordinates, we turned to head of the Federal Penitentiary Service Gennadiy Korniyenko. In our application we ask the Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service to personally oblige the head of the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region, as a superior executive who takes responsibility for actions of his subordinates, to offer apologies to Sergey Nikonorov and citizen K. in written form”.

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