Natives of the republics of Northern Caucasus went on a hunger strike in a penal colony of Mordovia

About 30 persons, most of them natives of the republics on Northern Caucasus, went on a hunger strike in penal colony No 7 of Mordovia. The participants of the hunger strike demand to observe the convicts’ rights and stop beating they undergo in the penal colony, a relative of one of the convicts reported.

The hunger strike started on November, 20, one of the participants’ relatives told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. According to him, there are several natives of the countries of Asia among the participants of the hunger strike.

According to the man’s information, on November, 20, two natives of North Ossetia opened their veins as a sign of protest against beating by the convoy. “They are: Roin Tibilov born in 1988 and Igor Gobulov born in 1984. After that they were not even moved to hospital, just their wounds were dressed”, the “Caucasian Knot’s” interlocutor said.

According to him, the convicts are regularly intimidated and promised that riot squad would be called and all of them would be beaten up. “They say: we are not afraid of anything, call human rights activists or whoever you wish. The Muslims complain that their religious attributes, i.e. prayer carpets and the Qur'an are taken away during searches”, the man said.

He adds that he is going to appeal to human rights organizations in order to organize an independent committee who would visit the penal colony. “We informed Chechen human rights activist Kheda Saratova about the hunger strike”, our interlocutor said.

Saratova confirmed the fact of receiving an appeal from relatives of the convicts of penal colony No 7 of Mordovia to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The “Caucasian Knot” has no comments from representatives of penal colony No 7 of Mordovia as of the moment of posting this news.