SARATOV. Oct 20 (Interfax) - Eight inmates serving sentences in prisons in the Saratov region have decided not to complain to the Investigative Committee about having been tortured at Regional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 1 (OTB-1) of the regional directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), lawyer Snezhana Muntyan told Interfax on Tuesday.
"Initially, I had 14 victims of torture at OTB-1, some of them are now free and some are in prison. Since the Moscow multiagency inspection commission left, many inmates have contacted me asking to take steps regarding the pressure they endured from the prison administration. And those on the list are practically all of our region's prisons," Muntyan said.
By now, of the 14 people Muntyan has been working with, only "six remain who will be filing claims with the Russian Investigative Committee," she said.
"These people have already been released from prison, so they think there is no threat to them, and they are prepared to continue fighting. The rest have balked on account of fear for their lives and health," Muntyan said.
The head of the regional Public Monitoring Commission, Denis Sobolev, told Interfax that the situation is under control.
"Any pressure on prison inmates must be given a legal evaluation. If facts are confirmed, we will react immediately," Sobolev said.
In early October, Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Gulagu.net human rights project, said that the project acquired and took outside of Russia over 1,000 Federal Penitentiary Service videos that confirm systemic torture in Russian penitentiaries and detention facilities in the Irkutsk, Saratov, and Vladimir regions. These include materials showing alleged torture at FSIN Regional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 1 in the Saratov region.
The footage prompted a public outcry.
The Russian Investigative Committee launched seven criminal inquiries into sexual violence and exceeding authority through the use violence.
FSIN Director Alexander Kalashnikov fired the head of the FSIN branch in the Saratov region, Alexei Fedotov, chief of FSIN Regional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 1 Pavel Gatsenko, and three of his subordinates.