09 February 2008, 16:20
Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya denies tortures in Chernokozovo
On the outcomes of another inspection of the custody conditions of inmates kept at the Chernokozovo Corrective Colony No. 2, the Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya has not confirmed that convicts are tortured in this facility and the custody conditions are intolerable, Khava Dugaeva, Prosecutor's PR assistant, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
"In the course of the inspection, the facts presented by Ruslan Kutaev, head of the International Committee on Problems of Northern Caucasus, and disseminated in publications failed to be true," Ms Dugaeva continued. "The Prosecutor's Office has examined all the inmates' hostels without, all the household objects, and on conditions of confidentiality held interviews with everyone who wished to." The Republic's Prosecutor's Office has stated that none of the inmates has confirmed any facts of tortures or other violent actions ever applied to them. No complaints on custody conditions were lodged.
"Moreover, the undertaken measures have proved impossible to establish anyone from among the 124 inmates who had allegedly signed a complaint sent to Ruslan Kutaev," Ms Dugaeva has added. During the inspection held by the employees of the Prosecutor's Office, the convicts expressed their discontent with delays of getting answers to their petitions sent to courts and executive bodies.
"They complained against biased trials in relation to their possible early-condition release," sources at the Prosecutor's office have informed. "Their claims were basically related to biased trials and application of unlawful methods of investigation at the stage of pre-judicial proceedings," Khava Dugaeva said.
Author: Abdula Saitiev, CK correspondent
