MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The Public Verdict Foundation has asked the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to find out why cases involving torture at penal colonies and detention facilities have not been investigated.
"We have sent the Prosecutor General's Office case materials provided by two dozen claimants, who have reported torture and illegal violence at penal colonies and police stations to law enforcement agencies. The citizens' reports were cursorily reviewed, no investigations were conducted into the crimes committed by officials, and requests to open criminal cases were declined," Public Verdict said on Facebook.
Criminal cases were only opened after the publication of reports of torture that took place in summer 2017, it said. "Before that, human rights activists contacted the Investigative Committee and the prosecutors many times, but no investigation was conducted," the foundation said.
"The foundation's reports mentions cases from seven regions: Mari-El, Mordovia, and the Ivanovo, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, and Yaroslavl regions. The events mentioned in the statements occurred in 2012-2017," Public Verdict said.
Earlier, the director of the FSIN ordered that all territorial branches of the agency set up commissions to look into every case of the use physical force and special means against inmates over the past year and into the operation of solitary and shared cells and high-security wards.
This summer, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta posted a video of the beating of Yevgeny Makarov, an inmate at Yaroslavl's Penal Colony No 1. The video, which was released by Makarov's lawyer, Public Verdict Foundation lawyer Irina Biryukova, caused a public outcry inside and outside the country.
In August, the Public Verdict Foundation and Novaya Gazeta released another video of inmates being beaten at a Yaroslavl prison. Employees, including some who appeared in the first video, lined up along the walls, beating inmates with clubs and insulting them as the latter walked past. According to Novaya Gazeta, the video was shot around December 2016.
A new abuse of office case was opened, in connection with which 13 colony officials were detained and one was put under house arrest. The case is being investigated by the Investigative Committee. In September, the arrests of all 14 people implicated the case were prolonged until December 20.
The Federal Penitentiary Service then announced it would conduct an inspection of all penitentiary establishments by October 1.