Thursday, 9 April 2020. Anton Oblenichev, a prisoner in IK-15, described the abuse he suffered in a video, saying he was beaten by members of the prison staff. He is shirtless and shows the marks left on his body by their blows. A makeshift dressing covers a wound on his forearm: he mutilated himself as an act of protest against the recurrent abuse the prisoners suffer. Seventeen of his fellow prisoners did the same to their forearms. Publishing the video reportedly earned Oblenichev another beating. Tensions seemed to settle down by the evening.

Friday, 10 April 2020. The following day, some prisoners reportedly refused to participate in physical activities. News of the previous day’s events spread quickly, and prisoners began to demand explanations. Accompanied by riot police, Leonid Sagalakov, the regional director of prison administration, assembled the prisoners in the colony’s main courtyard. The situation deteriorated and versions of events diverge from there. Some sources reported that Sagalakov tried to stem the bleeding from a wound a prisoner presented to him as a show of contempt. Others reported that the director tried to intimidate the prisoners, saying that the culprits would be “disgraced”, a promise that carries with it the threat of degrading treatment, rape, and their lowering down the ranks of the prison hierarchy. (See box below). Either way, a stone was then thrown which injured the director.

A riot erupted and special forces stormed the colony. A fire also broke out, burning three of the compound’s buildings to cinders. Both the staff and the prisoners blamed the other side for starting the fire. Video footage of the event documents the brutal repression which took place. Once they were caught, the prisoners were beaten, insulted and humiliated. Security forces threw grenades into the crowd and reportedly set dogs on the prisoners. It was also reported that the prison administration used water cannons to bring the rioters under control. According to some accounts, security forces used pump-action shotguns. More than 200 prisoners mutilated themselves during the insurrection to denounce the violence and repression. “They’re beating us and sparing no one!” shouted a group of prisoners in a video, as a fire raged in the background. Some prisoners managed to take shelter in the work area and contact their family or the media. They begged for help, saying they wanted to surrender: “They’re killing us!”

The administration confirmed the hospitalisation of nine prisoners who were transferred to a medical unit in a neighbouring prison. Some sources put the count at 300 injured. One death was officially declared: Maxim Dautov was found underneath the rubble of one of the buildings. His wife, Valeria Goleva, only learned of his death the next day, 11 April, from loved ones. She unsuccessfully tried to contact the administration until 13 April, when the authorities officially confirmed his death. On 17 April, she gained access to her husband’s body. An autopsy report came with it, stating that Dautov committed suicide by hanging himself. Goleva did not believe it. She said she received a call from her husband the morning of the riot, during which he told her about the rising tensions in the colony. She also said that Dautov’s body was covered in wounds and bruises. “It speaks of a violent death […]. In the official report, there is not a single mention of the blows to his body and the lacerated arms, as if they just didn’t exist,” she said during an interview with France 24. Goleva accused the administration of making her husband’s murder look like a suicide.

Other sources mentioned another death. A prisoner who reportedly received a spinal column injury during the clashes was released shortly after the riot and succumbed to his wounds in the following days. The administration formally denied this allegation.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened an enquiry into the obstruction of the normal functioning of the prison administration and the organisation of a riot. More than 300 prisoners suspected of having participated in or organised the insurrection were transferred to other prisons in the region, mainly the Irkutsk No. 1 remand prison (SIZO-1), the Irkutsk No. 6 penal colony (IK-6) and the Angarsk No. 6 remand prison (SIZO-6). A number of lawyers moreover said that they were being denied access into IK-15 from 13 April onwards, with the health crisis given as the reason.

Many families did not hear anything from their imprisoned family member for days, sometimes even weeks. The prison administration stated that it had been transparent. It added that every prisoner was in a “satisfactory state of health” and that their living conditions met the relevant legal obligations. It also announced that it had set up a hotline, a hotline which would prove to be of little use. Family members said they only received patchy, sometimes contradictory, information from the administration. Natalya G. only learned that her son was seriously injured three weeks after the insurrection. Lyudmila Z. said she received two letters from the administration, a month after the events, both stating contradictory information. As a result, the families relied heavily on unofficial information. Svetlana P., for example, received news on the health of her husband thanks to his cellmates, learning that he had undergone surgery. Local human rights organisations recorded 54 families which, a month after the protests, had no information on the whereabouts of their loved one.

In the days that followed the riot, prisoner Anton Oblenichev’s lawyer was not allowed to meet with him. The administration said his client did not wish to meet with him.
A report aired by one of Russia’s main news channels showed Anton Obenichev recanting his former allegations. He said he was never beaten and that he invented everything. His cell mate was also present, with marks visible on his face. He said he was manipulated by “people outside the prison” into participating in the insurrection. He confirmed the allegations made by the Minister of Justice, who said the riot was the fault of “human rights activists” wishing to upset the normal functioning of the prison administration. Other news channels requested authorisation to interview the prisoners. These requests were refused, with the health crisis given as the reason.

Nobody wanted to talk about the insurrection. Some of the families received appeals from their imprisoned loved ones telling them to stop looking for information. The spokesperson for the NGO Siberia Without Torture stated that he believes prisoners were unable to ask for help due to the danger they faced inside the prisons. They were censoring themselves faced with the threats they were receiving on a daily basis.

Khumaid Khaidayev (Хумайд Хайдаев) was one of the prisoners transferred after the riot. He was suspected of playing an active role in its organisation as well as having assaulted a member of the prison staff. The day after the riot, he was transferred to the Irkutsk remand prison (SIZO-1). His lawyer tried to contact him several times. On Monday, 13 April 2020, his lawyer learned, from an announcement on the prison’s noticeboard, that prisoners were only allowed access to their lawyer with a member of the enquiry present. He finally managed to meet with his client on 16 April.

The day after the meeting, the lawyer reported that his client had been tortured. Khaidayev was completely unable to give a testimony: he had reportedly been kept in handcuffs and beaten for four days, leaving him with several broken fingers and toes. His lawyer said he had been disfigured, stating that his client had been forced to wear a mask on his face continuously which had then been removed after those four days and took the skin on his face with it. “He is in an awful state, he could not even speak. He is covered in bruises; he does not even look like a person”. Another interview was organised on 1 May, but the prisoner was still not in a state where he could give a testimony. His lawyer believes that his client suffered serious abuse in the “Press Khata” used to force him to confess that he participated in the riot.

In December 2020, the NGO For Human Rights (За права человека), recorded Yegveni Yourchenko’s testimony; he was present the day of the riot. He described the abuse he suffered once the insurrection had been put down. Immediately after the uprising, he and his cellmates surrendered. They were all forcefully stripped, bound and dragged around naked outside the buildings. “We were all stripped naked, had our hands tied behind our backs and they laid us out on the wet tarmac.” Then, the anti-riot police beat him.

As he was on the verge of losing consciousness, the officers sprayed him to make him wake up… before starting the beating all over again.

He said he was then transferred to SIZO-6 as he was, along with 30 of his fellow prisoners. He spoke about the ceaseless violence which took place there. The perpetrators were other prisoners collaborating with the prison administration or the guards themselves. Beatings, blows from batons, a diverse range of tools, electrocutions to the genitals… This would be exactly what they were doing to Khaidayev, with the goal being to force him to confess his involvement in the protest movement. Yourchenko said he had witnessed several instances of sexual torture, all of which led to serious injuries. No prisoner would speak out about these practices for fear of reprisals.

Yourchenko was transferred back to IK-15, in isolation. After a final beating, he was left alone. At last, his bruises started to disappear. “Those were probably the happiest times you could have in prison.” The abuse stopped a week before his release. Yourchenko filed a complaint, in January 2021, for the mistreatment he said he had endured. His complaint was reportedly moved down to the rank of “citizen’s appeal”, which does not automatically trigger a criminal enquiry.
Yourchenko was also in discussions with the Commissioner for Human Rights, who expressed their intention to open an enquiry and place Yourchenko into protection. Yourchenko is still under judicial supervision and fears he will face reprisals for his actions.

Kehzik Ondar was transferred following the riot to Angarsk Penal Colony No. 6 (IK-6). Towards the end of December 2020, his sister and the NGO Gulagu condemned the torture he had suffered. At the time, he was imprisoned in the medical unit.

He was reportedly interrogated and placed in the “Press Khata.”

He explained that there they demanded that he sign a document stating that he was involved in both the fire that ravaged the prison and a murder during the riot. He refused and so was tortured on several occasions over the course of November. The prison staff placed him upside down after stripping him naked and then beat and raped him with batons. They also broke his leg, electrocuted him and mutilated his genitals. He suffered this abuse in front of his cellmates, with a view to extract information from them. The torture culminated with serious burns to his intestines after an immersion heater forced into his rectum exploded. After that he was transferred to the medical unit in IK-6, where he underwent two major surgical operations. His injuries have left him disabled.

His sister learned through one of his cellmates, at the start of December 2020, that Ondar had been temporarily transferred in the autumn to the Irkutsk Remand Prison No. 1 (SIZO-1) as a part of the enquiry into the events which took place in April. She managed to contact him at the end of the month.

Throughout December, no lawyer or family member was allowed to visit him. His lawyer stated that due to the pandemic, visits were only permitted through a glass screen. However, in view of the fact that Ondar could no longer move, visits had become impossible. The “Surveillance Commission”, a regional public human rights organisation with a mandate to enter places of incarceration, requested a meeting with him. This was refused, due to the pandemic. The regional mediator for human rights (local ombudsman) met Ondar on 9 December during a planned visit. It stated it did not have the right to disclose information about his health, but announced that it had contacted the directors of the prison administration as well as the Investigative Committee in order to shed light on this case. Ondar made a request for protection on 21 December.

At the end of December, the press service for the prison administration confirmed the acts of torture committed within SIZO-1. According to their press release, these acts were not committed by members of the prison administration and were the result of disagreements between prisoners. Ondar, through a statement made by his lawyer who he met with on 14 January 2021, disputed this version and named his torturers. This list included both prisoners and members of the prison administration. It stated that the staff in the prison knew all about the abuse he had suffered.

According to the NGO Gulagu, Ondar’s case is in all likelihood not an exception. The NGO estimated that at least 100 people could have suffered a similar treatment within SIZO-1, but threats of reprisals most likely stop the victims from speaking out about their torture. Gulagu also stated that the appeals and revelations involved in this case would have unleashed a new wave of reprisals.

The consecutive revelations of the different ways Ondar was tortured sparked turmoil and triggered a number of procedures. On 11 December, the department for the Irkutsk region’s Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened an initial preliminary enquiry following the request from the regional ombudsman. On 29 December 2020, it initiated criminal negligence proceedings. This was followed by criminal proceedings for sexual violence on 15 January 2021. The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service subsequently sent a commission to the region to meet with those involved. According to Ondar’s sister, the directors of IK-6 also threatened him in an attempt to stop him testifying before the investigators. Ondar has now been granted special protection.

By 21 January 2021, the initial stages of the investigation had revealed that at least two prisoners had suffered sexual abuse. The directors of the SIZO-1 and IK-6 facilities were all suspended. On 27 January, an officer from SIZO-1 was arrested on the grounds of “illegal actions which led to serious bodily injuries”*.

• Sur Le Monde : En Russie, un lanceur d’alerte dénonce un système de viols organisés en prison, le 6 octobre 2021 (in French)
• Sur Le Monde : Alexeï Navalny écrit de sa prison, l’une des plus dures du système carcéral russe, le 16 mars 2021 (in French)
• The russian prison Caste system
• La sous-culture carcérale (post)soviétique face à l’utilisation par l’administration pénitentiaire des doctrines d’autogestion (in French)
• Russia behind bars: the peculiarities of the Russian prison system