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Top-level
10/ Kara-Murza, who was recently freed in a prisoner swap with the West, says that the regime at prison hospital 11 in the Omsk region was the worst he encountered while imprisoned. He calls the prison system there "something between a camp and a madhouse". "There were constant searches there at every step, literally every 50 meters. Hands behind your back. Face to the wall. You can't look at anyone. Every morning, officers come into the cell with huge wooden hammers and conduct a full search." 15 comments
12/ "One of my friends from the 'seven' [IK-7] went to the front in 2022. Another one, with whom we shared a cell in 2016, also left. In the first days at the front, his head was torn off. And the first one returned after serving for six months. They are still taking them." 13/ "In general, now prisoners envy those recruited by Prigozhin. Then you held out for six months and returned with a pardon. Now you will fight until you die or until the war ends. The prisoners themselves tell me that if in 2022 they took 200-300 convicts there once a month, now they take 20-30. There is no one left to transport." 14/ A Chechen man, Malkho Bisultanov, also went to IK-7 on drugs charges which he says were fabricated. He says that the reputation of the Omsk prisons was so bad that wealthy prisoners would pay bribes to avoid getting sent there. "I was far from prison then and wondered: what difference does it make where you go? But it turned out that it is better to part with anything than to end up in Omsk." 15/ "Each time they torture you with some new method, and you think: probably nothing worse than this can happen. But they surprise you again. And they act methodically: they leave the old torture, but add a new one. Of course, they mainly torture in IK-7, where there is a special regime. People are specially taken there for the EKPT [solitary cells], where they can torture in peace." 16/ "There is torture in IK-6 too, but "Semerka" [IK-7] is just hell. There they torture with both cold and freezing, expose the genitals, shock, hang up, smear the anus with various corrosive liquids, stick various objects in there." Bisultanov was transferred to a penal colony in Krasnoyarsk and found that torture there was practised not only by prison employees but by so-called 'activist prisoners' – convicts who work for the authorities, rather like the kapos in Nazi concentration camps. 17/ He was himself tortured with electric shocks, a form of waterboarding, and being beaten on the soles of his feet. According to Bisultanov, prison employees induce 'activists' to torture other prisoners in exchange for vacations, packages from home, and other privileges. 18/ Bisultanov asked visiting officials why torture was used. One told him that the purpose of torture "is to make a person learn the expression “permit me to run.” That is, so that he would fulfill any demand of the administration at a run, without thinking whether it is legal or not. However, from the neighboring cells you hear that they torture those who already say “permit me to run.” Torture no longer changes anything, but they still torture you." 19/ "They will leave you alone only when you turn into a sissy [i.e. are raped and become untouchable, other than for further sexual abuse] or decide to commit suicide. Vagrants, thieves, A.U.E. [youth gang members] are taken to Omsk to simply break them. As they say, if you are 'sharpened' [come to the attention of the authorities], then they will send you to Omsk to the meat grinder." 20/ According to prisoner rights campaigner Olga Romanova, prisoners who have served time in Omsk say that "the entire system in Omsk is aimed specifically at restructuring the human psyche. This is not re-education, but the destruction of human dignity." 21/ Muslim prisoners are treated with particular brutality. In response, many have become radicalised, joined 'prison jamaats' [Islamic prayer groups], and sworn allegiance to ISIS. Two jamaats recently staged bloody uprisings in Russian penal colonies. 22/ Many non-Muslim prisoners have chosen to go to war rather than live with unending torture and degradation. Romanova says that "roughly, about 45% of all prisoners [from IK-6 and IK-7] were taken to war. They are taking more, and people are going, because it is unbearable to be there. In war, it is better than in the Omsk zone. It is a chance to avoid torture." 23/ "I want to say that in many colonies torture stopped during the war: you can’t spoil goods for the Ministry of Defence. But in Omsk, nothing has stopped." /end Source:  @ChrisO_wiki I mean I knew that russia tortures people. But I didn't think they do it to "normal" prisoners, too. |
Gregory's Server
11/ Starting in late 2022, prisoners from the IK-7 prison colony and its neighbour IK-6 began to be recruited by the Wagner Group and subsequently the Russian Ministry of Defence to fight in Ukraine. According to Andrei, this is still going on but there are fewer left to recruit.