The Investigative Committee took the victim of torture in the Irkutsk colony to the Angarsk “torture” pre-trial detention center

On January 18, the Investigative Committee took former convict Yevgeny Yurchenko, who was the first to report mass torture of prisoners in the Irkutsk region, to Angarsk SIZO-6, whose prisoners also complained about mass beatings and rape. He fears for his safety, since operatives, whom Yurchenko associated with mass torture, are still working in the Angarsk pre-trial detention center. About it writes Tayga.info with reference to human rights activist Pyotr Kuryanov.

Yurchenko was transferred to the Angarsk SIZO-6 for investigative actions in the case of mass torture of prisoners, in which he is a victim. According to Tayga.info, Alexander Kornev, the head of the investigation team in the “torture” case, named this reason. At the same time, Yurchenko from the end of December 2021 was under arrest in the fraternal SIZO-2 on the drug case.

Yurchenko considers the drug case to be fabricated. As he wrote in a letter addressed to Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, his criminal prosecution was based on a provocation by the GUFSIN officers in the Irkutsk region and prisoners collaborating with the administration. In the letter, he also asks to prevent his transfer to the Irkutsk SIZO-1, as well as the Angarsk SIZO-6 and IK-15: “I fear for my life and health, since the above-mentioned officials and convicts collaborating with the administration, out of a sense of revenge, are capable of new malfeasance against me, and some operational officers of the GUFSIN in the Irkutsk region have already expressed threats of physical violence against me.

After Yurchenko’s public statement about torture in the Irkutsk colony, human rights activists ensured his safe stay in Moscow. However, according to human rights activist Pyotr Kuryanov, Yurchenko decided to return home, to his village in the Bratsk district of the Irkutsk region, where he became the victim of a provocation.

The criminal case of mass torture, in which about 30 victims are now being investigated, is the largest in Russia in recent years. In early April 2020, after a protest rally in Irkutsk IK-15, which the security forces call a “riot”, hundreds of convicts could have been beaten and raped. The case of mass torture was opened only at the beginning of 2021.