In Kalmykia, prisoners go on hunger strike, human rights defenders report

At the penal colony IK-1, prisoners have declared the common hunger strike after the death of prisoner Dmitry Batyrev. This was reported by human rights defenders. Officials from the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN) do not confirm the information about the prisoners going on hunger strike.

According to investigators, in the evening of November 20, in the territory of the penitentiary institution in Kalmykia, "body of a 28-year-old man with signs of violent death was found".

"On November 21, 2015, all prisoners of the IK-1 penal colony in the village of Salyn of the Republic of Kalmykia declared the common hunger strike to protest against the murder of Dmitry Batyrev. The prisoners who are kept at the unit of high-security regime have declared the dry hunger strike and used wire to sew their mouths in protest," reports the message posted at the website of the project "Gulagu.net".

The website of the human rights project has also posted an open letter addressed to M. A. Fedotov, Chairman of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, and A. V. Babushkin, Chairman of the Standing Committee on promotion of the Public Oversight Commissions (POCs) and reformation of the penitentiary system.

"The human rights defenders from the 'Gulagu.net' were addressed by relatives of the deceased prisoner and gave them a video made in the morgue of the city of Elista, which proved that D. O. Batyrev had been tortured and beaten," notes the open letter. Its authors have requested the Presidential Council on Human Rights to send its representatives to Kalmykia and to examine the situation at the place.

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