Trial for lynching

The Investigation Department of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office has completed a criminal investigation against high-ranking employees of the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). According to investigators, seven senior officers of the GUFSIN in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region ordered prisoner assistants to rape other prisoners. Prison wardens filmed the cruel abuse on video.

The preliminary investigation lasted for about a year. As noted in the city prosecutor's office, the investigation was greatly complicated by the prisoners' dependence on officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
“At the first stage, we were unable to isolate the victims from the suspects in order to obtain complete and objective evidence and verify it,” explains Vladimir Romitsyn, senior investigator for economic and corruption crimes at the Investigative Department of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office.
Nevertheless, in the end, the investigation established that in February 2009, the now accused FSIN employees at the regional prison hospital named after Gaaz personally beat the prisoner Ilya Biyazov, and then forced other patients of the clinic to commit sexual violence against him and another prisoner.
As the Investigative Department of the City Prosecutor's Office told Novaya, on February 3, 2009, 34-year-old native of Belarus Ilya Biyazov, convicted of petty theft for one year and three months, escaped from a penal colony in the village of Gorelovo. However, on February 16 last year, operatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region detained him in the city of Vladimir and transferred him to the psychiatric ward of a prison hospital. And on the morning of February 17, the deputy head of the GUFSIN Rostislav Balobolko, the head of the search department of the operational department of the GUFSIN Alexander Berezkin and his deputy Vladimir Ignatiev arrived there and, at their own discretion, “punished” the detainee for escaping.
According to investigators, they handcuffed the fugitive, beat him (a coat hanger and a document folder were used as weapons) and wrote obscene words on his chest. After which Balobolko, threatening two other prisoners, also undergoing treatment in a hospital, forced them to commit violent acts of a sexual nature against Biyazov. On the instructions of the jailer, the incident was filmed. Then, as follows from the case materials, the head of the operational department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Vyacheslav Tippel, the head of pre-trial detention center No. 6 Andrei Gavrilov and his deputy for personnel and educational work Alexander Khachikyan beat Biyazov again. The latter received serious injuries from which he died.
On the same day, another prisoner was sexually assaulted at the Haaz hospital, whose name the investigative authorities did not disclose. In order to persuade this patient of the prison clinic to cooperate with the FSIN, the head of the department for combating criminal groups of the operational department of the GUFSIN, Evgeniy Petrov, organized a video recording of sexual violence, which, on his instructions, was committed against the inflexible stubborn man by other prisoners.
At the end of February 2009, after an inspection, the Investigative Department of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case against Rostislav Balobolko, Alexander Berezkin, Vladimir Ignatiev, Vyacheslav Tippel, Andrey Gavrilov, Alexander Khachikyan and Evgeny Petrov under Art. 286 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Exceeding official powers with the use of violence.” They were charged on February 1. Video recordings of abuse of Ilya Biyazov and the second prisoner, discovered by law enforcement officers in the suspects’ offices, formed the basis of the indictment. Balobolko and Petrov were also charged with organizing violent acts of a sexual nature. In addition, investigators accused four more people currently serving sentences in correctional institutions of committing violent acts of a sexual nature (Article 132, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case has now gone to court.
“We hope that this precedent will become a landmark for the Russian penal system against the backdrop of reforms carried out by the new leadership of the FSIN, during which special attention is paid to personnel problems,” said Anton Beshmelnitsyn, an investigator for especially important cases, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta. participation in the investigation of a crime. “In the near future, a submission will be sent to the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Alexander Reimer, in which we will ask that the facts obtained by the investigation be brought to other departments of the department in order to avoid the repetition of such situations.
The GUFSIN of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region refused to comment on the completion of the investigation.

Nina PETLYANOVA

Direct speech
Joseph GABUNIA, lawyer of the International Bar Association "St. Petersburg", member of the Human Rights Council of St. Petersburg:
— The Basic Law of the Russian Federation recognizes human rights and freedoms as the highest value. Respect and protection of the rights of convicted persons is also the responsibility of the state, along with the protection of the rights of other citizens. Article 21 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes that no one should be subjected to torture, violence, or other cruel or degrading treatment or punishment. The penal legislation of the Russian Federation, as well as the practice of its application, must be based on strict observance of the rights of convicts, primarily guarantees of their protection from torture and violence.
The arrests of high-ranking employees of the GUFSIN in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region indicate that there are huge problems in the Russian penitentiary system. Finally, law enforcement agencies admitted the facts of abuse of power. However, the guilt of prison governors can only be definitively established by a court.