Human rights defenders with the Committee for Prevention of Torture received copies of special rulings passed on 4 May 2016 by the Novotroitskiy City Court of the Orenburg region: one was passed with regard to Head of the regional Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Vladimir Andreyev, the second one – with regard to Head of the regional Investigative Committee’s Investigative Department Sergey Kolotov. These rulings appropriately supplemented the verdict, according to which former Head of Penal Colony-Settlement No. 11 Filyus Khusainov was sentenced.
The first special ruling was issued with regard to Head of the regional Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Vladimir Andreyev. Among other things, the special ruling included the following: «At the moment of the committing the crime F.F.Khusainov was working as Head of Penal Colony-Settlement No. 11 of the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region. At the same time he was committing this crime for a long period of time, including when he was at his workplace. According to the criminal case materials it appears that victim S.M.Nikonorov, serving sentence in Penal Colony-Settlement No.11 and his relatives repeatedly complained against the illegal actions of Head of the Colony F.F.Khusainov, including his actions at the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region. However, despite the information available with regard to F.F.Khusainov, his superiors did not take adequate measures aiming at revealing and eradicating the causes and conditions contributing to committing the crime. The court came to the conclusion that one of the factors which contributed to creating conditions for F.F.Khusainov committing grave crime was the Department of Federal Penitentiary Service superiors’ lack of control over the Head of Penal Colony-Settlement No.1 performing his duties. In order to prevent similar crimes in public office the court brings the attention of Head of the Department of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region V.V.Andreyev to the necessity of strengthening of control over his subordinates».
«One would find it difficult to go against the arguments of the court mentioned in the ruling addressed to the Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, – lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova comments on one of the issued special rulings, – since all the facts of systematic violations of the convicts’ rights and the legislation of the Russian Federation, which were revealed in the process of the judicial examination, were reported by the convicts and their relatives, as well as by human rights defenders, to the regional Department of Federal Penitentiary Service superiors. However, the submitted applications remained without an appropriate response from the regional department of the «prison institution», which allowed the head of the colony-settlement to avoid responsibility for a long time».
The court also paid attention to the work of the Investigative Committee’s Investigative Department for the Orenburg region on this criminal case. Special ruling addressed to the name of its superior Sergey Kolotov mentioned the violation of Article 6.1 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the RF for the Orenburg region containing the requirement on conducting the judicial proceedings within a reasonable time period. The court examined all the ungrounded refusals to open a criminal case and, motivating its decision, indicated that «in this case one person is named a defendant for committing one crime, at the same time F.F.Khusainov, as a person implicated in a crime, was initially mentioned in the victim’s complaint. The court did not establish any reasonable excuse explaining why the criminal case with regard to F.F.Khusainov was not conducted for a long time. The mentioned violations of the criminally-remedial legislation led to unfounded delay in the crime’s investigation, which demonstrates poor performance in the field of the criminal case investigation and poor control by the superiors, contradicts to the requirements posed to the officials investigating criminal cases, demonstrates the neglectful attitude of the latter to the rules established by the criminally-remedial legislation, harms the authority of the investigative bodies».
It is true that the victim and human rights defenders applied to the Committee Against Torture back on 26 July of 2013. The crime report mentioned Head of the Colony Filyus Khusainiv as a person who committed the crime. The investigative authority opened the criminal case only on 6 April 2014, i.e. after 8 months.
«The Investigative Committee started working on this case very half-heartedly. But nevertheless, due to the fact that the investigators after long months of inaction still got down to business in a serious way, numerous facts of other violations of the convicts’ rights and legislation, – lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Timur Rakhmatulin comments. – In the process of the criminal case investigation the convicts and the Federal Penitentiary Service officers were questioned and they provided testimonies against the former Head of correction facility. I’m sure that the story of Colony No.11 will not be over in one criminal case. As we have previously reported, the Deputy Head of this correctional facility was taken into custody in the framework of the criminal case on sexual violence. The competent authorities still have to work seriously and examine the situation in Colony-Settlement No.11 so that similar crimes will never happen in this or other correctional facilities of the region. Both special rulings issued by the Novotroitskiy City Court are aimed at preventing such crimes related to abuse of office».