Penal colony administration opposes CER for Musaeva

When opposing conditional early relief for Zarema Musaeva, the penal colony administration has claimed that the convicted woman has been kept in a penal colony in Argun for a short time and has not admitted her guilt.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on July 4, the court sentenced Zarema Musaeva to 5.5 years of imprisonment, finding her guilty of attacking a policeman. On September 12, the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya reduced the sentence to five years of imprisonment. On November 23, it became known that the Shali City Court scheduled the consideration of Zarema Musaeva’s request for conditional early relief (CER) for December 11. Human rights defenders believe that Zarema Musaeva has a chance for CER, but the decision depends on the authorities of Chechnya.

The “Team Against Torture” (TaT)* reports with reference to advocate Alexander Savin that according to Zarema Musaeva’s characteristics letter compiled by the penal colony administration, no disciplinary sanctions were imposed on Zarema Musaeva and she did not violate the penal colony’s regulations for two months. However, the convict demonstrates “blackmailing behaviour,” has not admitted her guilt, and does not always react positively to educational conversations.

According to a penal colony official who compiled the characteristics letter for Zarema Musaeva, she has been kept at the penal colony for a short time, so “it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion about her correction” and “the goals of the punishment have not been achieved.”

Advocate Alexander Savin has emphasized that the penal colony administration’s arguments contradict the position of the Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation, which “prohibits taking into account the short duration of serving a sentence in a particular penitentiary institution and non-admission of guilt when considering an application for conditional early relief.”

*The “Team against Torture” (TaT, formerly the “Committee against Torture” – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.