HRC "Memorial" speaks out against prison regime for Boris Stomakhin

On December 26, the court will consider the request of the administration of the penal colony, where Boris Stomakhin is serving his sentence for public justification of the terror acts in Volgograd. The administration requests the prison regime for Boris Stomakhin. Human rights defenders have called on the court to refuse tightening the detention regime for the publicist and claimed ungrounded penalties imposed on him at the penal colony.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Boris Stomakhin was accused of public appeals to terrorism and public justification of the terror acts in Volgograd, committed on December 29-30, 2014. On April 20, 2015, the court sentenced Boris Stomakhin to three years of imprisonment. In combination with his earlier pronounced sentence, the defendant was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. Boris Stomakhin himself pleaded not guilty.

In its appeal, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" states that the human rights defenders have already appealed to the administration of the penal colony and the Chusovoy City Court with a request to pay attention to the case of Boris Stomakhin and to refuse plans to tighten the prison regime for him.

According to the human rights defenders, the request for prison regime for Boris Stomakhin was based on a series of penalties, as a result of which he was repeatedly placed to ShIZO (a punishment cell). Among one of those penalties, the HRC "Memorial" mentions the placement of Boris Stomakhin for 15 days to the ShIZO on February 29, 2016.

Boris Stomakhin said that the administration of the penal colony placed him to the ShIZO, since he appeared outside his cell without a tag on his robe. Meanwhile, according to Boris Stomakhin, he did not put on his robe on February 28, since he did not leave his cell. In protest, Boris Stomakhin declared a hunger strike.

"Unreasonable punishments imposed on inmates in retaliation, failures of conditional early relief, and tightening of detention conditions are unfortunately a common practice in Russian penal colonies. This practice is obviously unacceptable from the point of view of law and morality," states the HRC "Memorial" in its appeal received today by the "Caucasian Knot".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.