MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) - Representatives of civil society have appealed to the Russian Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office to request that they conduct an unbiased investigation into a riot in an Irkutsk penal colony and grant access to the correctional facility to independent human rights activists, members of the Irkutsk regional Public Monitoring Commission, journalists, and lawyers.
"In light of the high social importance of and public response to the incident, [we request] that the investigation be taken under the control of the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. In particular, conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation of all the circumstances of the incident and disclose the results of the investigation," the activists said in a statement published on the website of the Memorial Human Rights Center on Tuesday.
The human rights activists also requested that the circumstances of the infliction of bodily harm to inmate Anton Obalenichev, as he mentioned in a video address, be determined and legally assessed. Additionally, it is necessary to give a legal assessment of the circumstances of the infliction of bodily harm to inmates, investigate the circumstances of the infliction of damage to the property of the penal colony, verify the legality and determine whether the use of physical force and non-lethal riot weapons against every convict was reasonable and appropriate, and open a criminal case into the death of an inmate, the statement said.
They also requested that the relatives of the inmates who were being held at penal colony No. 15 in the Irkutsk region and removed from it following the incident be promptly notified of their whereabouts, that lawyers, members of the Public Monitoring Commission, journalists, and human rights activists be allowed into the penal colony and shown video recordings of what is happening in it, and that the director of the penal colony and the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service branch for the Irkutsk region be dismissed.
The request was signed by Human Rights Council member Andrei Babushkin, co-chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group Valery Borshchyov, member of the Memorial Human Rights Center Sergei Davidis, human rights activists Svetlana Gannushkina, Sergei Krivenko, Lev Ponomaryov, Oleg Orlov, Olga Romanova, journalist Zoya Svetova, and others.
As reported, inmates of the disciplinary cell of penal colony No. 15 in the Irkutsk region caused disturbances and attacked an employee of the colony in the evening of April 9. The employee has been hospitalized. According to the management of the penal colony, the riots were initiated by one of the most serious violators of the colony's regulations.
Following the riot, a group of employees of the regional branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service immediately arrived at the penal colony. Inmates ceased their unlawful activities following a conversation with the group and after providing an explanation for the incident. The situation at the facility was under control, the press service for the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
On April 10, inmates rioted again and started a fire at the colony. The riot was suppressed the same day, and the fire was put out on April 11.
The body of an inmate with signs of a violent death was found after debris was cleared. According to one explanation, he may have been killed by other inmates for possibly cooperating with the administration of the facility.
Criminal cases on disrupting the operations of facilities ensuring isolation from society have been opened against inmates following the disturbances in the penal colony.