Fighting Back

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Roman Sarychev, with his partner, Maria Pimakhova and your dog

which worked Earlier this year, two guards in a prison in Yaroslavl, North-East of Moscow, were sent to prison for abuse of a prisoner. Despite official claims that Russian prisons are Cleaning Up their act, the prisoners, their relatives and Human Rights activists tell a very different story. The BBC's Oleg Boldyrev you examine the last case.

I have not seen The Room , where Roman Sarychev was beaten. So beaten that he died Three Hours later. No, this is not lazy reporting. The Room is unattainable, behind Barbed Wire and high walls. But The Prison , Penal colony Number Six in the region of Bryansk, southwest of Moscow, is known to many people. Some of the former prisoners, and even a current said to me exactly what this space looks like and what happens there.

It is windowless, with a low ceiling and walls in a shiny yellowish color. New prisoners enter the confined space through an even narrower corridor of The Prison entrance. You have to move quickly, almost running, the body bent, tied up arms behind her back. As They move, They are beaten, kicked and swore at the guards, while a heavy-metal-Track from the German band Rammstein plays at deafening volume.

This ritual is called recording. It is designed to scare and to humiliate the newcomers. Exactly the reason why the 32-year-old Sarychev was kicked so hard that his spleen is torn, is still Unknown - an investigation is now underway. But the tapping itself is not a surprise for those who are familiar with the colony Number Six , or with many other Russian prisons.

prisoner in a high security prison in Sosnovka, in the Russian Republic of Mordovia

The Prison service officially with 2,700 deaths in custody in the last year. The assumption is that many were from Natural Causes , but allegations of torture and ill-treatment are commonplace.

A notorious video was created in the year 2018, the guards of an inmate in a prison in Yaroslavl, while he was pinned, Face Down on a table.

A year later, several prisoners in a prison in Karelia close to the Finnish border, told resulted from beatings and abuse, in at least one fatality. The Prison is the former Director was sent to prison last year for torturing the inmates. In 2015, five young prisoners were made to urinate on each other and then beaten in a prison in Krasnodar, in The South of Russia. One of them died.

These and many other stories that are often only public, and months or years later, after The Witnesses have been dismissed. If there is a really big scandal, some of The Prison officials before the court. The authorities say the lessons have been learned, but similar incidents again and again.

The Incident of Yaroslavl was unusual because it was footage from cameras should be worn by the guards on duty. Most of the time, though, Something Happens with the cameras to work, They just stop, as was the case in fact, with The Attack on the Roman Sarychev, in the Penal colony Number Six .

Penal colony Number Six

Sarychev, was found guilty of organizing a string of illegal internet casinos in Bryansk. He had hoped to get them off with a high money penalty, but instead sentenced her to two-and-a-half years. He appealed, in the hope that his serious liver condition, it could mean that a non-custodial penalty, but no such luck. Sarychev, the Penal colony at 19:40, was transferred on 8. December of last year. An ambulance was an hour called later. He died on the operating table with 22:40.

The Following morning, Sarychev mother, Elena, called The Prison service and expect that the results of his blood tests. Instead of a caseworker told her that her son was dead. Elena cried out. Sarychev sister made another call. It was said that there had been "an incident".

died Soon after the Sarychev, a guard, Maj Sergei Shevtsov was arrested. He remains in custody while The Investigation continued. Activists monitor cases of prison violence, say it is unlikely that this officer was Alone .

Sarychev partner, Maria Pimakhova, and mother Elena

I chatted with The Mother of another inmate from the same prison who had come only a few hours before Sarychev. She told me that her son was also made by a line of guards, who punched and kicked him to the sound of the same Heavy Metal melody.

Other former prisoners know, Maj Shevtsov good.

An ex-detainee said to me: "He and another guard who liked the nickname Smetana, striking people. Discipline is not, or to extort money, but just because They could. "

In July 2018 Smetana, whose nickname means "Sour Cream " and whose real name is Ivan Marshalko, strangled, sheets, an inmate with a bed. He is now serving 12 years in prison for the murder. 2014 In The Other guard, Andrei Yakubov, repeatedly slammed a large stack of books in The Head of a prisoner. His victim died a week later from a brain hemorrhage. Yakubov is a 10-year prison sentence.

Penal colony Number Six has rioted a long history of violence Twice in the past few years, his prisoners to the edge, and protested against torture and extortion carried out by gangs of prisoners on behalf of The Prison administration. People who have done the time there, told me dozens of death cases were never investigated.

the worker at the morgue told Sarychev family, he's already thrown in The Room "like a rubber toy". His relatives could not turn him, to see The Other side of his body. But They saw a strange round spots on his legs. They published the pictures online, to shock in the hope The Public and put pressure on The Investigation .

The sad reality is, however, that the Penal colony Number Six is far from Unique - it is only a prison, among hundreds, the hide may be similar to dark secrets.

On The Day of The Funeral , a letter had arrived in the home of Sarychev together with his partner, Maria, and their children. The novel was written, it is from a remand centre, before he was transferred to the Penal colony was.

your five-year-old son dictated a reply. "But we are also deeply-deeply love you, and we miss our beautiful and wise dad," he said. "You were a good dad. "

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Two years ago, many Russians were shocked, when the Parliament significantly reduced penalties for domestic violence. Since then, the women have to fight back - call for new laws to curb the perpetrators, demonstrate the support of the Three Sisters took The Law into their own hands and are looking for new ways to combat outdated attitudes on gender.

russia, prisons

Source of news: bbc.com