Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation approved in the first reading a bill establishing liability for torture. This decision was taken by the people’s choices unanimously.
According to the document, torture committed by government officials will be classified as a particularly serious crime. Persons found guilty under it can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 12 years.
The amendments also introduce the concept of “intimidation” into Russian legislation, and coercion to testify for employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service is proposed to be equated with torture.
Recall that in September, the human rights project Gulagu.net published five pictures with scenes of sexual violence and torture in a prison hospital in the Saratov region, and on October 4 posted a video of the rape of three prisoners in this institution. After that, criminal cases were initiated, and the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Saratov Region, Alexei Fedotov, resigned. The management of the hospital where prisoners were abused was also dismissed.
On November 25, it became known that Lieutenant-General Alexander Kalashnikov, who had worked as director of the Federal Penitentiary Service for a little over two years and had not been able to eradicate torture and bullying in prisons and prisons during this time, was dismissed by Vladimir Putin. The president appointed Major General Arkady Gostev, who has served as Russia’s deputy interior minister since 2012, as the country’s new chief jailer.
