Judge of the Leninsky District Court of Orenburg Oleg Mesyats declared illegal the denial of access of the members of thePublic Monitoring Committee for the Orenburg region (PMC) to the temporary detention facilities, having satisfied applications of human rights defenders filed based on the fact of preventing them from performing their duties. In all the debatable cases representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Department of the Federal Service for the Execution of Sentences referred to the procedure of the regional PMC that did not allow its members performing their duties without the authorization of the Commission’s Chairman. .
(Photo: members of PMC for the Orenburg region Timur Rakhmatulin, Vyacheslav Dyundin, Albina Mudarisova, Dmitry Dimitriyev)
On 19 February 2015 members of the Public Monitoring Commission for the Orenburg region Vyacheslav Dyundin, Albina Mudarisova, Dmitry Dimitriyev notified the Department of Interior for the Orenburg Region, as it is required by Federal law №76 «On Public Monitoring», about their planned visit of the penal colony settlement No.11 (Guberlya station), temporary detention facility under the Department of Interior of Russia for Orsk city, and Orsk Police Department No.1.
On the next day, having travelled 280 km, the PMC members arrived from Orenburg to conduct public monitoring at the Police Department No.1. However, the human rights defenders monitoring was suddenly interrupted: the police dispatch center received a telephone call from Deputy Head of the Department of the Interior for Orsk city Roman Odintsov who gave unlawful order to the Police Department head Ruslan Umargaleyev to stop the PMC members work. Roman Odintsov referred to the fact that the visit of the PMC members to the Police Department was not authorized by the Chairman of the PMC for the Orenburg region and therefore contradicts to the Commission’s procedure.
The human rights defenders also failed to do their work in the temporary detention facility under the Ministry of the Interior of Russia for Orsk city. Deputy head of the temporary detention facility Yury Korshikov in his conversation with the public monitors said that he would have granted them access, that he had «nothing to hide», but that he received an order from his management not to do it. Korshikov refused to identify these persons from his management. In their turn, the members of the Commission drew an act on hindering them from carrying out their work.
The day which was abundant in unlawful actions of the authorities ended with one more denial to the PMC members to perform public monitoring. This time it came from the head of penal colony settlement No.11 (Guberlya station) Filyus Khusainov. The reason for the denial was the same as in previous cases – the fact that the Chairman of the PMC had not authorized the visit to the temporary detention facility.
The Leninsky District Court, having listened to the parties and examined their arguments, came to the conclusion that the head of Police Department No.1 Ruslan Umargaleyev, deputy head of the temporary detention facility Yury Korshikov and the head of penal colony settlement No.11 (Guberlya station) Filyus Khusainov unlawfully prevented the PMC members from performing their duties.
The court specifically emphasized that every member of the Public Monitoring Commission has equal rights, that the procedure of the PMC for the Orenburg region had not been adopted and approved according to the procedure established by the Federal law and therefore, cannot be considered a guiding document for the detention facilities officers.
«Once again we have asserted our right for access to detention facilities without prior authorization of the Chairman of the PMC. In the nearest future we are planning to conduct more visits to the facilities access to which was denied to us. My colleagues and myself are hoping that the management of these facilities will assist us in every way in doing that», – member of the PMC for the Orenburg region Dmitry Dimitriyev comments on the situation.
«Interesting fact about all this situation is that the representatives of regional Ministry of the Interior and the Department of the Federal Service for the Execution of Sentences turn for support to the Chairman of the PMC for the Orenburg region Aleksey Yegorov, summoning him to the court hearings as a witness or a third party. At the same time in court the latter is actively supporting their unlawful position based on the Commission’s procedure, which contradicts to the Federal law on public monitoring», – member of the PMC for the Orenburg region Albina Mudarisova comments on the circumstances of the case.
As we have previosuly reported, previously the Civil Board of the Orenburg Region Court chaired by judge Irina Selyutina passed the appellate ruling stating that the procedure of the Public Monitoring Committee for the Orenburg region (PMC) cannot be an obstacle for its members to perform their duties when visiting the detention facilities.