Translated material
The penalty stage
- Human rights activists report the recruitment of Russian prisoners to participate in the war with Ukraine.
- Why the Ministry of Justice seeks the liquidation of Russian agency offices, which helps Jews repatriate in Israel.
- In Russia, they tightened the punishment for torture: will this change the situation?
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The penalty stage
Relatives of convicts serving a sentence in Russian colonies inform human rights activists about cases of their recruitment by representatives of a private military company directly in places of imprisonment. Some argue that Evgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the PMC Wagner , personally agitates to fight for their homeland. The publication "Important Stories" writes that at least three convicts from the correctional colony number seven of the Leningrad Region have already died in the war in Ukraine, two more were injured and are now in one of the hospitals of Lugansk. Earlier, they were allegedly recruited by the Wagner PMC. This information is confirmed by the sources of human rights activists.
In touch, the founder of the organization "Rus Sitting" Olga Romanova .
Relatives of prisoners report cases of their recruitment for war in Ukraine by representatives of the PMC
Olga Romanova: The first messages began to come a few days after the start of the war from the so-called “BS colonies” (this is the safe maintenance of former employees: Sobr, OMON, customs officers, traffic police, judges, investigators, FSB, who are sitting for some crimes). In theory, these are people who have passed some kind of military training, who can hold weapons in their hands. The recruiters went to them immediately, but there their success did not wait, because these people with great pleasure know how to initiate criminal cases against us, to disperse our rallies and single pickets, but there were no people who wanted to go to war. For a while there was a lull. And then human rights activists missed this moment, because we are talking about a "black hole" for human rights - Chechnya. The so -called "Chechen battalion", which is fighting in Ukraine, suddenly discovered - simply by faces - people who not only have many criminal records, but should also serve long time. And how they ended up in the "Chechen battalion" - no one knows.
The third wave, the largest and most undisguised, began at the end of June from the Leningrad Region, with three colonies, where the landscaping of Wagner landed; From the zones "Obukhovo", "Fornosovo" and "Yablonevka" (IK-7), the first batch was sent in early July. It was a convoy echelon for the transportation of prisoners. They were sent to IK-2 of the Rostov region. It was a kind of preparation, they were intensively trained for two weeks-as attack aircraft and mine clearance specialists. And for four to five days these people are in battles. We know about the three dead, because the head of the zone solemnly announced about these prisoners, such as: "Heroically killed. Well done!"
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Other sidella informed you about this?
Olga Romanova: Yes. And relatives. The head of the zone announced this to the mother of the deceased man, whose name was Konstantin (nickname - red). Surely the wounded are more, but we know by the last names of two - Smirnov and Zakharov. They lie in the hospital under nicknames. On Thursday, the prisoners went out with them on the video, and the wounded man solemnly waved his hand and told how well he was treated here, that you could not be afraid, to recruit everyone. And it was just about the fact that, it seems, on the eve of another 35 people in the same colony were recruited. In one of the colonies of the Ryazan region, 300 people were recruited last week (and 1300 sits in the colony). We went to messages that Prigozhin arrived there personally, and it seems that he really was there.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Is it regulated by something? How to decorate the papers?
Olga Romanova: The whole story is completely withdrawn from the legal field. We know only about one paper that such prisoners sign: this is a paper on non -disclosure of everything that they will recognize or hear. None of them signed any contracts. Moreover, if people fight under nicknames, then it is not very clear how a wife or mother will prove that she is a relative of a gray, red, ptachi or cat.
The whole story is completely withdrawn from the legal field
Maryana Torocheshnikova: 300 prisoners were taken away from the Ryazan colony somewhere. This was supposed to somehow decorate. The prosecutor's office should already stand on the ears and find out what is happening! One of the relatives tried to contact them, maybe some active deputies from independent?
Olga Romanova: Deputies and PMCs completely deny everything. I have already seen a lot of official reports of the Ministry of Defense, that only the Ministry of Defense is fighting there, no one else. It is good that our lawyer Leonid Krikun agreed to speak anonymously, which is very dangerous for him. He was the other day in the Yablonevka colony, after which great unrest began there. Of course, many relatives will seek the return of their relatives at the place of serving the sentence. But prisoners are the most marginal layer of the Russian population. 90% have neither relatives nor social ties. In addition, our people are intimidated and scored to the last state, and many relatives say: "We will not fight - no matter how worse it is."
We know several colonies, where the bosses after the Vagner's visit come to prisoners and dissuade them to do this. Guys, thank you very much! You are well done!
We observe the recruitment everywhere, to the Urals: Komi, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Leningrad, Tula, Ryazan, Vladimir regions, Tver, Adygea. They do not call people who are convicted of criminal articles related to violation of sexual integrity and pedophilia, but not for considerations, no matter how it came to them in Ukraine, but simply no one will agree to live with them in the same barracks, to be in the same trench, no one will cover them. All other articles are suitable, they take everyone. Of course, no one except the Wagner PMC knows the exact number of recruited. We are talking about 25 areas where we get signals, and in Leningrad, Ryazan, these are already several hundred prisoners from each zone. I think, in general, about a thousand or more.
This, of course, is the repetition of penal battalions during the Great Patriotic War. But then let's call a spade a spade: after all, the war is a war, and not some kind of "special military operation." And of course, in our "best" traditions, nevertheless, there are detachments, more experienced fighters of the Wagner PMC: they block the capabilities of the departure.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: The bill adopted in the first reading in the State Duma, which allows you to send people from ordinary colonies to a colony-settlement a little earlier and further for more or less easy work, including, can it be created in order to legalize what is happening?
We observe the recruitment everywhere, to the Urals: Komi, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Novgorod, Tver, Adygea
Olga Romanova: Of course: it is precisely in order to legally hire people to work in PMCs and unload zones under Ukrainian prisoners of war. The Rostov and some other regions are unloaded, prepared for Ukrainian prisoners of war, prisoners were sent to other places. When these zones began to be released, and rumors about the war were already going, we noticed that the prisoners and relatives announced that the zone was closing for major repairs, but at the same time, none of the building materials were bought at the public procurement, but they bought three thousand dryers. Peaceful and involuntary Ukrainian citizens were taken to the colony number 11 of the Kursk region, simply stolen in Buch, Gostel, Chernihiv region, Irpen, Volnovakha. No one admits that they are there, but there is a true sign: the zone is protected by the military police.
"Dry" is not a place
The Mainten’s Main Directorate for Moscow requires the liquidation of the Russian representative office of the Jewish agency "Dry" , which contributes to repatriation to Israel. The Ministry of Justice announces gross violations by the agency of Russian legislation and the illegal collection of personal data of Russian citizens, but the detailed content of the claim is not disclosed. Against the backdrop of the war with Ukraine, the Russian offices are “dry”, according to The Jerusalem Post, about a thousand people turn daily. At the same time, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that the trial with the agency was caused by the need to "observe Russian laws" and is in no way connected with the "brain leak".
Crime without an article
On July 29, the court in Yaroslavl will begin to consider the case of torture and death in a penal colony number one prisoner Vazhi Bochorishvili. His relatives waited for the beginning of these hearings for five years - it took so much time to bring to court the so -called "second Yaroslavl case" against employees of the penalty service. One of the current defendants - Sergey Gusarin - was a witness in the "First Yaroslavl case" - in an episode about the beating of the prisoner Evgeny Makarov, everything in the same colony.
So, in Russia they decided to tougher the guilty of torture. Vladimir Putin approved the corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code in mid -July. For many years, human rights activists have sought to bring Russian legislation in this part in line with international standards. Finally, afterthe publication at the end of last year, the video of the fierce torture in Russian colonies, the authorities decided that it was time to change the law. But will law enforcement practice change now?
The subject of the crime remained an official: in this case, a whole range of cases of the use of torture simply falls out
In the video with us is the head of the analytical and legal department of the "Torture Team" Dmitry Kazakov and lawyer of the Public Verdict Foundation Irina Biryukova .
The main achievement can be considered the legislative consolidation of the concept of “torture”, which now seems to correspond to international law?
Dmitry Kazakov: The achievement is quite controversial, because the definition that was fixed is incomplete and does not contain all the necessary elements. The authors of the bill went along the simplest way - they decided to transfer the concept of “torture”, again circumcised, completely to the Criminal Code, did not bother with the design of a special article that would provide for the responsibility for torture and other types of cruelty, but simply decided to add norms to existing articles. As a result, the responsibility for torture continues to be fragmented in the Criminal Code; We have not received a single, full norm.
The subject of the crime remained an official (and in the practice of international bodies, the subject of this crime is a person acting in official quality): at the same time, a whole range of cases of the application of abuse simply falls out. So, employees of the PFC or representatives of the Cossacks who are involved in the protection of public order, from the point of view of legislative terms, do not belong to officials and judicial practice does not perceive them as such. But at the same time, in certain situations they act as representatives of the state and should be liable as the subjects of the use of torture.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: In 2018, the "Public Verdict", together with the "New Gazeta", first released the video recording of the tortures of Yevgeny Makarov. The other day, already at large, he died of pneumonia. All were shocked by this, "Yaroslavl affairs" began. Irina, according to your observations, the attitude of investigators towards these “torture matters” changed, began to carefully approach their investigation?
Irina Biryukova: Just the opposite. When there was the first "Yaroslavl case" with Zhenya Makarov, everything was in a novelty, and the rest of the affairs had already gone according to the designed scheme. Everyone, even the Investigative Committee, watched how the first case will go in court. Now they have a standard that passed, stood in higher authorities, and do not come up with anything new, more thoroughly investigate, look for some new evidence, because suddenly this scheme will get out of the rails, there will be something new, and suddenly it will not work?
They do not want to work and investigate and will not
Maryana Torocheshnikova: And what's the difference, what article will the investigator use? Or is it still fundamental?
Irina Biryukova: This is a fundamental moment. A separate article should then require a separate work, separate statistics, respectively, it must be reported on it that certain employees are attracted precisely for torture, which means that it is necessary to investigate this, say that there is torture. And since now changes have been amended in an article about crimes classified as official crimes, we will still not see statistics on torture. It is necessary to work and investigate.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Don't you want?
Irina Biryukova: Yes, they will not want and will not.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: There is no official statistics on the frequency of torture in the Russian Federation. But the “committee against torture” used to be some statistics, now the “team against torture” has it. Dmitry, how often do people in Russia are tortured and how difficult it is to hold the perpetrators accountable?
Dmitry Kazakov: It is quite difficult to operate with the data of a human rights organization, because it relies only on her experience. At one time, a hundredthold was carried out, according to which every fifth resident of Russia in one way or another came across torture or cruel treatment, after a few years another study showed that every tenth.
It is quite difficult to achieve criminal proceedings. There are rare cases when things are initiated quickly, but this mainly applies to cases of obvious use of torture or cases with particular cruelty, when severe consequences for the victim occurred. Basically, according to reports on the use of torture and cruelty, decisions are made to refuse to institute criminal proceedings: they do not establish the corpus delicti or the event itself. There is no desire and motivation of investigators to fully conduct an investigation, search and collect evidence.
To achieve criminal cases in case of torture is quite difficult
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Why? They will open the case - they may be awarded, they will give a prize, a star for shoulder straps.
Dmitry Kazakov: There are priorities of those crimes that the main forces are aimed at fighting. For example, the fight against corruption is declared, and then the priority of the fight against corruption crimes. The problem is that the investigators of the Investigative Committee, who are required to investigate cases of torture, are very closely functionally associated with police officers who often become the subjects of these crimes. The UK investigates a large number of other serious crimes, and police officers provide direct assistance in their opening. This becomes a serious obstacle to effective investigation.
Maryana Torocheshnikova: More than six years ago, in places of restrictions of freedom, they decided to install DVRs, video recording cameras everywhere in order to fix all violations so that people would not beat and not torture.
Irina Biryukova: There are all these notes, but they will be used exactly when it will be necessary to punish the prisoner, not an employee. Otherwise, there will always be a failure in the work of the chambers, the tension failure, as they usually write to us: the DVRs did not work, broke. We will never receive these notes, they are not provided to the investigation. It is necessary that the prosecutor’s office has access to them, and we have been fighting for this for many years. But for this you need a will, but it is not. In any provincial city, everyone knows each other, and how conditional Ivan Ivanovich will be planted for the crime of Peter Petrovich, when they celebrated the christening, went to the bathhouse, drank beer?
Maryana Torocheshnikova: Why then not to take all this to Moscow?
Irina Biryukova: And who needs it? This is a branch of power. Then we must admit that there is a problem of torture, and punish the colonies, then - prosecutors, a higher prosecutor, investigation, court, along a chain. And no one needs this except those who suffered from torture.
How will Ivan Ivanovich plant Peter Petrovich when they went to the bathhouse together, drank beer?
Maryana Torocheshnikova: In the new version of the Criminal Code, it is specifically noted that the torture is not “causing physical or moral suffering that arise as a result of legitimate actions of an official or inevitably associated with such actions” (for example, using force). Will it be easy for this definition to hide guilty of cruelty?
Irina Biryukova: Very easy. I think the loophole is left intentionally. In all cases that I lead, there was a conclusion that special equipment and the use of force were legal. As for this criterion, which has no clear faces, you can determine to what extent the use of violence was legitimate? This is an internal discretion of the higher employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Prosecutor or investigator.