Member of the PMC for the Nizhny Novgorod region, lawyer of INGO «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» Dmitry Utukin has filed an application to Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the RF Aleksandr Bastrykin, in which he described numerous facts of permissiveness and failure to prevent the crime by the Regional Investigative Department for Investigation of Complaints of Penal Colony No.14 convicts (Sukhovobezvodnoye settlement), who reported on crimes in this institution. According to the human rights defender this could lead to negative consequences in the penal colony.
The application of member of the Public Monitoring Commission for monitoring the human rights in the penal institutions of the Nizhny Novgorod region (the PMC) Dmitry Utukin to Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia was caused by the Regional Investigative Department ignoring the numerous applications, filed by the human rights defenders based on complaints of Penal Colony No.14 convicts.
Thus, on 7 April of this year Dmitry Utukin sent the convicts and their relatives’ complaints as well as the flash-drive with video records of the convicts interviews to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region. In their applications the convicts complained about torture and extortion, which according to their words, were committed against them on the territory of Penal Colony No.14 (Sukhovobezvodnoye settlement) for the past four years.
The only thing that is known to the human rights defender at the moment is that his application dated 21 April was «transferred» to the Semenovsky Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region. Moreover, based on the established facts, which are mentioned in the application, the investigators of the Semenovsky Department simply lost the materials which had been handed over to them.
Dmitry Utukin also points out in his application that in August of this year he submitted the crime report to the Investigative Department. This report contained information received during personal meetings with Penal Colony No.14 convicts. Later on numerous updates were added to this application.
The human rights defender also submitted the application addressed to Head of Department for Major Cases Investigation of the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region on 27 August, requesting to question the persons, having information on murders committed in the colony in 2014 and 2015.
And once again the only reaction that Utukin got were answers stating that the applications were transferred to the same Semenovsky Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region.
No answers were received to the motions of INGO «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» lawyers, representing the interests of the relatives of the victims who died in the colony in 2013-2014, on recognizing them as the affected party.
«Despite the fact that the criminal cases on murders of convicts Kalyakin and Kulemin were initiated back in March 2015, their relatives have not been recognized as the affected party and have not been questioned in this capacity», – the application emphasizes.
«I think that the situation in the penal colony demands a special attention. It involves violations of hundreds convicts’ rights. There are some grounds to believe that several convicts were killed in the colony. The investigation of criminal cases is related to a large amount of investigative activities. In addition, people who have been suffering from injustice for years, cannot even learn what decisions were made on their complaints. This provokes unhealthy situation in the institution. There some concerns that having failed to find justice in the legal framework, the convicts will start to act using illegal methods», – Utukin summarizes.
Due to that member of the PMC Dmitry Utukin asks Chairman of the Investigative Department of Russia Aleksandr Bastrykin to transfer the materials of checks on the reports of crimes committed in Penal Colony No.14 to the Department for Major Cases Investigation of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod region, to transfer the criminal cases on deaths of convicts Djavoyan, Kulemin, Kozlov, Kustov to the Investigative Department on Investigation of Crimes Committed by the Law-Enforcement Officials of the 3rd Investigative Department of the Chief Investigatory Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the RF, to inform the applicants and their representatives on the procedural decisions made on their crime reports and on the investigation status.