The Petrozavodsk City Court sentenced Ivan Savelyev, the former head of correctional colony No. 9, and his former deputy, Ivan Kovalev, to seven years in prison in the case of beating a prisoner. They were found guilty of abuse of power with the use of violence (point “a” part 3 of article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), Mediazona reports with reference to lawyer Roman Masalev.
Savelyev and Kovalyov are prohibited from holding positions in the civil service for three years after their release.
In my country blocked
present tense
According to investigators, in 2014, the defendants forcibly brought a convicted citizen of Tajikistan to the medical office of a punishment cell because he was dissatisfied with the methods of a personal search. There, according to the prosecution, he was struck with 17 punches and kicks. During the process, it became known that the injured Tajik citizen was declared persona non grata and expelled from the country, so he could not take part in the meeting.
The prosecutor’s office stated in court that the guilt of Savelyev and Kovsalev was fully proven, but the former leaders of the colony did not admit their guilt. “I don’t admit guilt. There were no such events,” Savelyev said. Kovalev also answered in the negative to the court’s question about whether he admits guilt.
Correctional colony No. 9 in Petrozavodsk – for those convicted under grave and especially grave articles. Here they sit for murders, robbery, sale of drugs. Present Time and Mediazona wrote in 2019 that prisoners in the colony complained of torture, beatings, extortion and violation of working conditions, and also talked about the death of one of the survivors of the beating in 2013. They said that Savelyev personally participated in the beatings. Savelyev himself, then still the head of the colony, after the publication of the material, arranged a tour for journalists. He claimed that there was no torture, but he was “disgusted” to read the material with the words of the convicts.
The case was opened after the publication of a video in which two men in uniform beat a prisoner. The publication was accompanied by a message that Savelyev and Kovalev were on the video. Ivan Savelyev, after the appearance of a publication about torture in the colony, filed a libel complaint with the Investigative Committee, trying to bring journalist Alla Konstantinova to justice. The investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Karelia refused to open a criminal case. Saveliev and Kovalev were detained only in April 2020.
