Today, on 27 June 2017, the judicial panel of the Orenburg Regional Court upheld the ruling with regard to former head of Penal Colony-Settlement No.11 Philyus Khusainov and his deputy Murat Kumarov. As we have previously reported, on 5 April of this year the Novotroitsky City Court of the Orenburg region declared both guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of Russia. They share two articles: violent actions of sexual nature by a group of people by previous concert and abuse of office. In addition, the court declared Khusainov guilty of exceeding his official authority, and Kumarov – of taking the bribe. Former head of the Penal Colony No. 11 is sentenced to seven years prison term, and his subordinate – to five and a half years. Both will serve their sentence in the standard regime penal colony. The verdict of the court of the first instance have entered legal force.
(Filyus Khusainov, Murat Kumarov)
As we have previously reported, Penal-Colony Settlement No.11 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region attracted the attention of human rights back in summer of 2013 when Irina Balashova applied for legal assistance. According to the woman, her partner Sergey Nikonorov was trapped in unbearable and inhuman conditions created by the staff of Penal Colony (settlement) no. 11 for Orenburg region, which is headed by Filyus Khusainov: convicts were systematically subjected to ill-treatment, including threats of sexual abuse. Concerning Mr Nikonorov, the treatment had been caused by his refusals to work at construction sites, and his forced labor complaints were lodged with the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office. Based on these episodes former head of this penal institution Filyus Khusainov was convicted and sentenced to three years prison term with serving the sentence in a standard regime penal colony.
In end of 2013 the picture of appalling abuse of power in Penal-Colony Settlement No.11 was supplemented by testimonies of convicts K. and D. (full names are not given due to ethical reasons), who informed that they became victims of crimes committed by the Colony’s officers. They applied to the Orenburg branch of the Committee Against Torture out of desperation, since after the failed attempt to flee (in its turn, motivated by batteries) one of them was raped by the convict from the so called «core group» in the presence of the Colony officers and at their order and this was recorded by the administration officers using the video recorder.
This is what the victim said later to the investigating officer: on 13 October 2013 Deputy Head of the Colony Settlement for Security and Field Work major Murat Kumarov took him to the punitive isolation ward. There he gave the order to other convicts to beat him. The victim was beaten severely, no one spared him, he fainted away several times. Kumarov helped him regain his consciousness pouring cold water on him. Several employees of the correctional facility were watching this including Filyus Khusainov who was the head of the colony at that time. After the beating Khusainov gave the order: “Make them line up here!” and around fifteen employees of the correctional facility entered the room. Two convicts from the group of the activists who followed the orders of the colony administration employees were holding K., the third one was given the order to touch the face and lips of K. with his genitals and so he did it. Deputy Head of the Colony Murat Kumarov was recording all this with the dashboard camera. And only when the torturer said that the film is ready, they stopped to abuse K. and the employees of the colony broke up.
The court also established that Khusainov ordered his subordinate to conceal the fact of convict K.’s attempt to flee to avoid negative consequences due to committed mistakes and substandard work. Instead, a fake report was drawn up regarding convict K., which stated that the latter was allegedly apprehended by the penal colony officers in the state of drunkenness and offered resistance.
This fake resulted in putting convict K. in the punitive confinement, and his service of sentence conditions were changed for more stringent ones.
Apart from taking part in violent activities of sexual nature and abuse of office, Kumarov was also declared guilty of taking a bribe in the amount of 24400 rubles.
On 5 April of this year judge of the Novotroitsky City Court Pavel Ivlev passed a judgement of conviction regarding the former superiors of Penal Colony No 11. Khusainov was convicted to seven years of imprisonment, and Marat Kumarov – to five and a half.
The convicts and their defense lawyers, not satisfied with the court’s verdict, appealed against it.
Today, having listened to the positions of the parties, the court recessed for deliberation room, after that it announced the verdict. The judicial panel of the Orenburg Regional Court upheld the verdict of Filyus Khusainov and Murat Kumarov. The verdict entered into legal force.
Lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova: “For the last two years the investigation cleared seven criminal episodes of the executive officers of this colony-settlement, which involve: exceeding official authority, abuse of office, taking a bribe for illegal activity, applying violence against the representative of authority, violent actions of sexual nature… The latter is the most horrific. Besides that it was organized by high-ranking executives of this establishment, none of the present officers did not stop the abuse. Now, when the verdict has entered into legal force, we will apply to court with a lawsuit on compensation of moral damage inflicted to the victim by the crime of the superiors of this correctional institution”.