The former head of the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region, Alexander Shestun, sentenced to 15.5 years, was placed for 15 days in a punishment cell in IK-6, Tver region. His letter is quoted by the VChK-OGPU telegram channel, but when exactly this happened is not specified.
“They gave me a “dark” one. A crowd burst into the cell, conducted a two-hour search, confiscated all the papers, and then threw things into trunks and dragged me away with them,” Shestun described what happened. The reason, as the prisoner writes, was his complaints about the conditions of detention in the colony.
In the letter, the politician said that in his cell during the day the temperature was about 12-15 degrees Celsius, and in the SUS room it did not rise above 9 degrees. In the shower, he said, there was ice on the floor. The convicts wore hats and jackets. For heating, the administration used an electric gun of a type prohibited for use in residential premises, Shestun added.
The prisoner also said that he was not given permission to call his son on his 16th birthday.
Today it became known that Shestun was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 2 of the Tver region in connection with a new criminal case - about the disorganization of the activities of institutions that ensure isolation from society (Article 321 of the Criminal Code).
In July 2023, Shestun was transferred to SUS for a year. Before this, he was repeatedly placed in a punishment cell. The politician himself associates such pressure with his complaints about the leadership of the colony and publications in the media about violations in the institution.
Shestun was detained in June 2018 on charges of abuse of power - according to investigators, he illegally transferred ownership of a plot of land to a legal entity at a reduced price. Later, the charge was reclassified to an article about fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code). Then other articles appeared: legalization of funds received as a result of a crime (clause “b”, part 4, article 174.1 of the Criminal Code); illegal business activity (Article 289 of the Criminal Code); receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). On December 25, 2020, the man was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security colony.
On August 11, 2022, the Domodedovo City Court of the Moscow Region sentenced Shestun to another six months in prison. He was found guilty on three counts: threat or violent actions in connection with the administration of justice (Part 1 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code), insulting a judge (Part 2 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code) and insulting a government official (Article 319 of the Criminal Code). This case was opened in April 2021. According to lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, the man partially admitted guilt of insult, but denied guilt of uttering threats. Now, on February 2, 2024, it became known that another criminal case was opened against the politician, about disorganizing the activities of institutions that ensure isolation from society (Article 321 of the Criminal Code). In this regard, he is transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 2 in the Tver region.
- In November 2022, the Serpukhov City Court of the Moscow Region decided to evict Shestun’s 86-year-old mother, wife and two minor children from two houses. Thus, the court satisfied the civil claims of the Moscow region territorial administration of the Federal Property Management Agency, which became known in May.
- Human rights project “Support for political prisoners. Memorial considers the persecution of the ex-head of the Serpukhov region to be politically motivated, and him as a political prisoner, and demands a retrial.