Natives of Dagestan and Chechnya complain about torture in Ulyanovsk colony

The staff of the colony located in the Ulyanovsk Region have forced Muslim prisoners from Dagestan and Chechnya to shave off their beards, tortured them and confiscated their personal belongings, human rights defenders have reported.

According to the "Civic Assistance" Committee*, employees of the correctional institution (colony) located in the Ulyanovsk Region, under the threat of violence, shaved the heads and beards of four convicts from Chechnya and Dagestan and one from Uzbekistan. Clippers on the shaving tools were deliberately broken so that Muslims could not keep part of their beards, as the religion prescribes for them.

One of the convicts refused to completely shave off his beard, after which he was beaten up by an employee of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (known as FSIN). Aiming to draw attention to his protest over the gross violation of inmates' rights, the prisoner stuck a sharpened wire between his ribs. Doctors made a surgery on him. The colony stuff beat him up again when he returned from surgery. They also insulted him because of his religion, threatened him with a fabrication of a criminal case and took away his personal belongings, the "Kavkaz Realii"** project has reported.

Complaints have been received against this colony that is under the Ulyanovsk regional branch of the FSIN, said Oyub Titiev, coordinator of the program to help prisoners native to the North Caucasus, according to the website of the "Civic Assistance" Committee*.

The convicts complained that the Koran and prayer rugs were taken away from them; and pork meat was intentionally added to the meals in order to break the observance of the rules of Islam by enforced hunger.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that on August 18, 2022, natives of Dagestan told their advocates about the torture in the Kalmyk colony. According to their stories, they and other Muslims were prevented from praying and reading the Koran.

*On April 20, 2015, information appeared on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of the Russian Federation that the "Civic Assistance" Committee was included in the list of foreign agents.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.