Week-ending 13 November 2020
On 10 November 2020, a court in Grozny, Chechnya, ordered the Federal Penitentiary Service to pay two million roubles in compensation to relatives of Sultan Israilov, who died after being tortured at the Chelyabinsk penitentiary colony No. 2 in 2015.
Caucasian Knot reported on Tuesday, 10 November 2020: In Grozny, a court obliged the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) to pay two million roubles of compensation to relatives of prisoner Sultan Israilov, who died after torture at the Chelyabinsk penitentiary colony No. 2. The Sultan Israilov’s parents, who filed a claim for fifteen million roubles of compensation, are satisfied with the court’s verdict, their lawyer reports today. The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on December 21, 2015, Sultan Israilov, a native of Chechnya, was brought to a punishment cell of the Chelyabinsk penitentiary colony No. 2, and after that he was found dead. Four warders from the penitentiary colony were found guilty of abuse of power with the use of violence. The Leninsky District Court of Grozny pronounced the decision on the claim for compensation to the parents of Sultan Israilov, who died after torture at the Chelyabinsk penitentiary colony. The FSIN will have to pay two million roubles to the Sultan Israilov’s family, the “Interfax” reports today. The court reduced the amount of compensation, but the Sultan Israilov’s parents were satisfied with the decision, lawyer Sergey Denisenko says.” Initially, they asked for fifteen million roubles. However, based on the practice of Russian courts, the amount of two million roubles in compensation for moral damage is one of the largest,” said lawyer Sergey Denisenko as quoted by the “Kavkaz.Realii”.
On 3 August 2018, Oksana Trufanova, wrote in an article, ‘Why Russian prison officers can torture with impunity’ in OpenDemoracyRussia, in which she reported on the killing of Sultan Israilov: “[…] the Metallurgichesky district court in Chelyabinsk, one of the country’s largest cities, held a closed session to try a number of prison officers accused of the 2015 beating and killing of a Chechen inmate, Sultan Israilov. Back then, 500 detainees went on hunger strike in demand of a proper investigation into Israilov’s death. Human rights campaigners and legal experts believe that the Chelyabinsk trial is a farce, an attempt by the penitential system to defend itself from public opprobrium inside and outside Russia over the torture practices embedded in the system for decades – and to call attention to the fact that the perpetrators will yet again get off scot free. In July 2017, Russia’s Investigative Committee completed their investigation into the death of Sultan Israilov at Chelyabinsk’s Colony No.2. According to their findings, on 21 December 2015, prison officers Vladimir Malinin, Alekcandr Dontsov and Viktor Podkorytov beat up inmate Sultan Israilov in a punishment cell. They then faked his suicide, leaving him to die a slow death by hanging him from the cell window. This case involves a second victim, another prisoner by the name of Andrey Chernikov, who was also beaten up by Dontsov, Podkorytov and another warder, Viktor Zaviyalov. Evidently Israilov tried to protect Chernikov after he was beaten up: the court papers say that the prison officers beat Israilov, who was handcuffed, with a rubber truncheon and then tied one end of a scarf to a high window bar and the other end round his neck.’
RAPSI reported on Tuesday, 10 November 2020: A court in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, ordered the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) to pay 2 million rubles ($26,000) in compensation to the parents of Sultan Israilov, who had died from tortures in a penal colony where he had been serving sentence, attorney Sergey Denisenko told RAPSI on Tuesday. Israilov’s parents sought for a 15 million-ruble compensation (about $200,000 at the current exchange rate) for moral injury. In November 2018, four officers of a penal colony in the Chelyabinsk Region were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 8 years in prison as part of the inmate beating case, the victim party’s lawyer Andrey Lepekhin told RAPSI. According to the attorney, Alexander Dontsov, Victor Podkorytov, Viktor Zavialov and Vladimir Malinin were found guilty of abuse of power with the use of force resulted in heavy consequences.
