FSIN associates riot of prisoners from Northern Caucasus in Ulyanovsk Region with searches

Amid the human rights defenders’ reports about beatings of natives of Northern Caucasus in prison, the Department for the Ulyanovsk Region of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) stated that the prisoners’ hunger strike was preceded by a mass protest against searches in cells.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on April 13, fasting prisoners, mostly from Chechnya and Ingushetia, were beaten in the Dimitrovgrad prison, and their copies of the Koran and prayer rugs were also destroyed, the human rights project “Gulagu.net” has reported today. According to the human rights defenders, dozens of prisoners, including non-Muslims, injured themselves in protest, and on April 14, about a hundred prisoners went on a hunger strike.

According to the press service for the FSIN Department for the Ulyanovsk Region, participants in the action of a “demonstrative-blackmailing nature” in prison were malicious violators of the prison regime, convicted for grave and especially grave crimes, and on April 13, during searches, they “protested the holding of security measures and compliance with the requirements of serving sentences.”

The press service for the FSIN Department for the Ulyanovsk Region also reports that about 30 convicts cut themselves with fragments of buttons. Doctors provided them with medical help, and no one needed hospitalization. “In addition, 12 convicts refused in writing to eat food prepared in the penitentiary institution. They were examined by medical officers. Their health condition is satisfactory,” said an official from the press service for the FSIN Department for the Ulyanovsk Region as quoted today by the “Interfax”.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 15, 2022 at 01:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.