Today in the course of the court hearing dedicated to extending a judicial restraint to former Deputy Head of Orenburg Penal Colony-Settlement No 11 Murat Kumarov in the form of keeping him in custody it has become known that the investigation also intends to bring a charge against former Head of this correctional institution Philyus Khusainov in the framework of the criminal case initiated on grounds of crimes under item «а» part 3 Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the RF («Sexual battery performed by a group of persons by previous concert») and item «а» Part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF («Abuse of office using violence of threatening with violence»).
(Photo: member of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Vyacheslav Dyundin, representing the interests of the victim)
As we have previously reported, on 20 April of this year the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Orenburg region initiated a criminal case based on the fact of committing violent acts of sexual nature with involvement of other convicts by unidentified officers of Colony-Settlement No 11. On 11 May the former Deputy Head of Orenburg Penal Colony-Settlement No.11 Murat Kumarov was charged with this crime and after two days he was taken into custody.
On 1 June 2016 another criminal case was initiated against Murat Kumarov with regards to crime under Part 3 Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the RF («Acceptance of a bribe by an executive for taking illegal actions»).
In the course of today’s court hearing on extending a judicial restraint to Murat Kumarov in the form of keeping him in custody judge of the Novotroitskiy City Court Aleksandr Ezhelev pointed out that the circumstances which were previously taken into account by the court when this restraint was imposed, did not change. According to the court, such circumstances involved links to relatives beyond the Russian Federation, as well as the fact that Kumarov himself repeatedly travelled abroad, thus he has the opportunity to abscond during the investigation or trial. The court took into account that no less than 10 witnesses, questioned in the framework of the criminal case, reported on the pressure that they were subjected to by Kumarov in order to make them change their testimony in the criminal case. All the mentioned witnesses reported that they were concerned about the continuing pressure from the former influential officer of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
With regard to this the court passed a ruling to extend the period of the defendant’s stay in custody till 20 August 2016.
It is worth noting that in support of his motion on extending Murat Kumarov’s stay in custody the investigator in charge of this case pointed out that in the nearest future he was going to conduct a number of such important investigative activities as interrogations, face-to-face confrontations, checking the witnesses’ evidence on site, etc. It was also stated that in the framework of the criminal case in question the investigation also intends to bring a charge against former Head of Penal Colony-Settlement No 11 Philyus Khusainov, in relation to whom the verdict was pronounced on 4 May of this year.
«The intention of the investigator to bring a charge against the former head of the colony-settlement for the crime, which his deputy is accused of, did not came as a surprise for us, – member of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Vyacheslav Dyundin, representing the interests of the victim, comments. – Since according to many witnesses’ evidence, everything that was taking place on the territory of this notorious colony, was either known or ordered by its head Philyus Khusainov».