Dead body in penal colony № 2 again. Photos are not for faint-hearted

On June 18^th 2014 members of Public Monitoring Committee of Sverdlovsk region Olga Dianova and Larisa Zakharova inspected penal colony № 2 in Yekaterinburg as a part of the project «Public service for penitentiary control».

Since the first minutes we have faced an incident. The matter is relatives of dead convict arrived at the colony. We decided to help them in case if dead convict had violent death. But our conversation was interrupted in a rude way by officer of colony who was escorting members of Committee.

It turned out that we run away from (according to him) and besides we could be only with prisoners  but not with family members of any convicts!!!

It was getting more and more interesting — we were escorted to the next room where we were ordered to put hands up and spread legs, then they checked us with metal detector by what officer humiliated women. We have met with such inspection for the first time.

We have checked squads with 58 people. One convict told us with emotional outpouring about total lawfulness which he experienced in penal colony № 2 in 2012. Everything he was saying we’ve heard zillion times from others who also were serving sentences in colony. It wasn’t surprise how jailers get confessions from prisoners; how they torture convicts. Every convict is scared to death to speak out. We realise why.

As another convict  who refused to meet with human rights defenders said: «You come and go and I will stay here».

There are more and more people in solitaries… Clothes are shabby and getting worse and worse.

Then we walked to squad № 3 with  54 people — 7 prisoners have II disability group; 8 prisoners — III group. The next was quarantine squad where 8 convicts were recorded in a log but in fact — only 5; all the rest are in hospital. Again the same picture — depressed look, heads down… In answer to all questions we hear only: «NEGATIVE» or «AFFIRMATIVE» like in army. They learned not to put head up.

We’ve checked hospital either; it is being repaired. Nobody has complained of anything that is also familiar to us. We get all convicts who need medical treatment under control. As a rule we keep inspecting people further.

In the evening we called relatives of dead convict; we found out that they couldn’t get dead body due to different reasons. It happened only the next day. In the early morning relatives and we arrived at mortuary but officer of colony had already taken documents  and left a message for us to go to colony then. However upon arrival relatives faced documents routine again. Nobody cared that people in despair run back and forth unsuccessfully.

We got involved in satiation and called to human rights Ombudsman of Sverdlovsk region. Only after call from Sergey Sannikov situation changed a little. As relatives told us later, officers did everything quickly.

At the end of a day we received the body and after examination we noticed traces from bodily injuries. We had a feeling he was beaten in a head and he covered his head with arms. The reason of death is usual — heart failure or some infection…

“Upon execution of the project means of state assistance are used allocated as grant according to Order of President of the Russian Federation on 18.09.2013 № 348-рп”) and based on competition of Donor”

Larisa Zakharova, member of Public Monitoring Committee of Sverdlovsk region.