«This is an enclosed area, no one will protect us.» Several prisoners informed human rights defenders about torture in the penal colony «Black Dolphin»

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22 November 2024

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+

In October, the lawyers studied the documents obtained from the investigator and related to the complaint of one of the prisoners of the colony No. 6 for life-sentenced convicts (so-called «Black Dolphin”). In that same document, the lawyers found information that back in May, investigators had about twenty complaints lodged by prisoners from this colony about physical violence and conditions of detention. The Investigative Committee did not open a criminal case into any of these incidents, and those who openly talk about violations of the law in the colony, according to the prisoners, are often subjected to repression.

Due to fear of punishment, prisoners are reluctant to communicate with human rights defenders. Of the 21 people whose names were found out, less than half agreed to meet with an attorney. We changed their names for security reasons. Some prisoners met the attorney, but refused to talk; however, they did not hide the fact that they had been asked to keep silent by the colony officers. Prisoner Roman showed a piece of paper through the glass with the following text: «There are murders, extortion, this is an enclosed area, no one will protect us, they do whatever they want

Prisoner Dmitriy said that he was often beaten. After repeated complaints about violence and conditions of detention, a prosecutor came to him. However, there was no reaction from government agencies.

«The only result of such a complaint is being placed in a punishment cell and the disruption of a long meeting with the parents,» the man said. This is why he no longer wants to talk to human rights defenders or representatives of the prosecutor’s office.

Some prisoners, who agreed to talk to the attorney, mentioned cases of violence against other prisoners in their stories. For example, Pavel claims that he himself has not been beaten for six months, but he witnessed the beating of another prisoner with a mental disorder. Another interviewee, Aleksandr, claims that last year, he was beaten with electric current, and he also knows that in 2022, a man, who had been beaten, subsequently died in the colony, as he developed complications.


The commentary of the Crew Against Torture: «The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service is a very enclosed structure, and colonies for life imprisonment are even more restricted institutions within that enclosed structure. Convicts are in the most isolated, and therefore vulnerable, environment there. Most of them either have no contact with the outside world at all, or have very limited contact. Therefore, it is there that a situation develops in which it is extremely difficult to avoid arbitrariness. Any colony which doesn’t entail complaints is not an ideal colony, but rather the opposite. Convicts do not write complaints against the colony administration, do not inform the prosecutor’s office about the violation of their rights, the Public Oversight Commission reports on how everything is fine in that colony, but as soon as an attorney is sent to the colony, we immediately learn about systematic violence within the walls of that penitentiary institution

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