Rights defender reports mass beatings of inmates in Elista SIZO

Vladimir Galitrov. an expert of the Kalmyk Branch of the Public Movement "For Human Rights", demands an inquiry into the mass beating of convicts kept in the SIZO (pre-trial prison) of the city of Elista. This is stated in the message of Valery Badmaev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Modern Kalmykia", that arrived to the "Caucasian Knot".

In May this year, Mr Galitrov learned about the use of physical force against three prisoners kept in the SIZO of the Department for the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (also known as "UFSIN"), located in the city of Elista. The inmates' bodily injuries were recorded only when they were transferred to Colony No. 2, where they were rendered medical treatment. After that, Erdni Eldyshev, chairman of the Public Oversight Commission of Kalmykia, who arrived in the colony, draw up a memorandum to the head of the local UFSIN Department.

So far, nothing is known on the reaction to Mr Eldyshev's memo; however, it was reported that on May 30 49 other prisoners were beaten at the SIZO with application of electric stuns and then convoyed on the following day to the same Colony No. 2. According to Galitrov, the SIZO paramedic recorded no injuries in the beaten prisoners; it was done only in the Colony after interference of the public.