Six people, including two prison officials, were indicted in Russia on Thursday (January 13) in a case that rocked the country in October after videos showing rape and torture in prison were broadcast, Russian authorities said.
In early October, the specialized NGO Gulagu.net published videos of this ill-treatment obtained by the whistleblower and former prisoner Sergei Savelev, who had access to these recordings during his detention under the guise of computer maintenance activities. . He has since applied for asylum in France.
These images show in particular the rapes and systematic torture inflicted on detainees in a prison-hospital in Saratov. Several investigations were opened after these revelations.
Intimidation and extortion
“Four detainees were charged with sexual violence”, while two officials of the Saratov prison-hospital were charged with ” abuse of power “, said Alexandre Bastrykine, head of the Russian Investigation Committee, the main body responsible for criminal investigations in the country, in an interview with the public press agency RIA Novosti.
According to investigators, inmates, on the orders of prison-hospital staff, systematically committed violent acts of a sexual nature against other inmates in 2020-2021.
“Their objective was to intimidate and extort funds” to their victims, added Alexandre Bastrykine.
The Russian prison system is very regularly marred by torture scandals, which are committed in an almost institutionalized way by guards or other detainees at their orders, in particular in order to extract confessions.
The revelations of these tortures in the prison-hospital of Saratov had already led to the dismissal of the director of the FSIN (the Russian prison services), to the resignation of the head of the local prison services, as well as to the dismissal of officials from the penitentiary concerned.
The Russian authorities had first launched proceedings and issued an arrest warrant against the whistleblower Sergei Savelev, who fled Russia for France, before abandoning them.