Russia: detainees who had rebelled against systematic torture sentenced to heavy sentences

At the end of a lengthy trial, 17 participants in a protest that took place in the Kopeysk penal colony (Ural Region) in November 2012 in response to systematic torture practices were sentenced to up to 5 years of prison by the Chelyabinsk Regional Court for “mass riots.” While the events of 2012 sparked at the time a broad debate in society about the use of torture in Russian prisons, this verdict is an alarming signal of impunity for torturers.¶

After a trial that lasted two years and ten months, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court sentenced seventeen of the participants in the protest that shook the Kopeysk colony in 2012 to sentences ranging between 4 and 5 years (six defendants who had taken part in a rally outside the prison were sentenced to lighter sentences). On 24 and 25 November 2012, the detainees climbed onto the rooftops of the prison to protest against the torture and racketeering practices that were in place in the facility. They stopped their protest once their claim was met: the arrival of a Moscow prosecutor and of television crews in order to investigate the situation in the prison. According to the substantiated information, the protest inside the Colony passed off peacefully. However, on the evening of 24 November 2012 clashes erupted between the OMON officers who had cordoned off the Colony outside and the relatives/friends of the prisoners who had not been admitted inside the Colony, during the “Open Doors Days” (days of planned visits by relatives to the detainees).

In its judgment rendered yesterday, the Court refused to take into account the arguments of the defense, which argued that the mass riots were not, in the absence of violence, legally made out, and that the protest was the only way to stop the torture practices constantly perpetrated by prison staff. The Court remained indifferent to the testimony of the representative of the Presidential Council on Human Rights of the Russian Federation, who explained that the fact-finding mission conducted a few days after the events had confirmed the torture-related allegations . Nor did the Court take into consideration the testimonies along the same lines of a State Duma MP and several members of the Chelyabinsk Public Monitoring Commission. Despite the lack of evidence regarding violence in the video recordings, the Court agreed with the arguments of the prosecution, based first of all on the testimony of detainees members of a informal structure affiliated with the administration and whose involvement in acts of torture had been established by the Presidential Human Rights Council, and secondly, on the damage done to an internal fence.

Procedurally, this trial cannot be considered fair. The defendants, whose lawyers were paid through the legal aid scheme, did not have the time and facilities to prepare the defense. It was clearly not possible for them to analyze the 12,200 pages of the indictment – although they were very repetitive – under adequate conditions. The extreme staggering of the trial inevitably forced lawyers to intermittently defend their clients and substitute for one another. Even more seriously, the absence of any notice of the witness summonses has prevented any meaningful preparation of the hearings. In general, the defendants have not been able to adequately discuss the reliability of the evidence presented by the prosecution.

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