MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - The Russian presidential human rights council believes that the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) does not control the situation in penal colonies in some regions, including in Karelia, where situations of torture of inmates have been registered.
"We see that, unfortunately, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, from our viewpoint, has lost control over processes in some regions, including in Karelia. We see that the creation of 'torture colonies' in these regions is widespread and no one intend to fight torture there. They are only ready to imitate prevention at best. And when some of the FSIN officials really tries to begin fighting torture, some forces that are not interested in it hit them on the hands," human rights council member Andrei Babushkin told a press conference in the Interfax central office on Wednesday following the council's visit to Karelia.
"We see mechanisms that allow for turning the regime, supervision, schedule requirements into weapons of cruel and degrading treatment and punishment," Babushkin said.
Babushkin said he is surprised by the fact that officials from the FSIN Department for Karelia did not wish to participate in the roundtable meeting on the situation in Karelia colonies, which was attended by the republic's deputy prosecutor, acting head of the Investigative Department, human rights activists, and deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia.
"The prosecutors, the Investigative Committee and the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service currently have no mechanism, no algorithm to locate and curb cruel treatment and torture," he said.
"We don't know of any situation when a person reporting torture or witnesses who are under massive pressure were taken to a different region. Specifically, as regards Karelia, we insisted that those people be taken to the Leningrad region. We don't know of any situation when full-fledged verification was conducted," he said.
The Code of Criminal Procedure envisages a broad range of actions, specifically, in situations of reports of the use of physical violence against a prisoner it is necessary to immediately take and preserve recordings from security cameras, which, according to him, is not done.
Members of the human rights council have also criticized the work of the supervisory bodies.
"When people are just tortured by loud sounds, prosecutors should react! Issue recommendations, measure these 90 decibels that just turn people's brains inside out using sound level meters. Unfortunately, these simplest things are not done," Babushkin said.
A special meeting of the human rights council on issues relating to public control in Russia is scheduled for March 6, he said. "It will, of course, address the issue of public control in establishments of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service," he said.
The human rights council held a field meeting in Karelia on February 8-10.