Former prisoner who suffered from torture in Yaroslavl IK-1 was awarded compensation of 50 thousand rubles

The Yaroslavl Regional Court ruled to recover compensation from the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in favor of former prisoner Artur Ghukasyan. He was recognized as a victim in a criminal case of torture in Yaroslavl Colony No. 1.

“The former convict will receive 50 thousand rubles in compensation for the illegal actions of the colony employees,” – reported “Interfax” press secretary of the regional court Olga Kozlova.

According to her, Ghukasyan filed a lawsuit in which the moral damage caused to him was estimated at 500,000 rubles. In November 2021, the Zavolzhsky District Court of Yaroslavl satisfied the claim, but recovered only a tenth of the amount of the claim from the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Later, Ghukasyan appealed to the regional court with an appeal against the decision of the district court.

According to Olga Kozlova, the plaintiff suffered from the actions of the employees of correctional colony No. 1 of the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service Sardor Ziyabov and Dmitry Nikitenko. On October 2, 2020, the Zavolzhsky District Court of Yaroslavl found them guilty of beating prisoners.

The employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service were charged with Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official powers). Ziyabov received 4 years in a general regime colony, and Nikitenko – three years in a general regime colony. Later, the judicial board of the Yaroslavl Regional Court confirmed the verdict.

According to the Public Verdict, Ziyabov and Nikitenko were seconded to IK-1 from IK-8.

The investigation of the first criminal case on torture in the Yaroslavl colony began in the summer of 2018. Before that, Novaya Gazeta published footage of the beating of prisoner Yevgeny Makarov, obtained by the Public Verdict Foundation. On the recording, Makarov, handcuffed, was beaten with hands and batons on his shins and heels, pouring water from a bucket. On November 19, 2020, the Dzerzhinsky court of Yaroslavl acquitted the former employees of IK-1 — the acting head of the colony Dmitry Nikolaev and his deputy Igit Mikhailov. The rest of the defendants in the case were found guilty and sentenced to 3-4 years in prison.

Subsequently, other records of the torture of prisoners dated 2016 and 2017 were published. After beating one of them, Georgian citizen Vazha Bochorishvili, they sent him to the ShIZO, where he started bleeding. The convict died a month later in the Rybinsk hospital.