15:37, 17 July 2014

Convicted member of Tsapok's grouping goes on hunger strike, rights defenders report

Vladimir Alekseev. Photo: Central Office of Russia's Investigative Committee

On July 15, the convict Vladimir Alekseev, a member of the gang under command of Sergey Tsapok, who is pending an appeal of his sentence at SIZO (pre-trial prison) No. 1 of Krasnodar, announced an indefinite hunger strike. He demands, in particular, to investigate the circumstances of Tsapok's death and find the culprits, said Anna Mitrenko, a member of the Regional Public Oversight Commission (POC).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 7 Sergey Tsapok was found dead in a solitary cell of the above SIZO-1, where he was kept after his defence appealed against the verdict. According to prosecutors, his death was caused by a blockage of the pulmonary artery. Earlier, on July 4, another figurant in the case – Igor Chernykh – was found hung in another solitary cell.

The members of the POC received from Alekseev first oral and then written application and complaint, in which he reported illegal actions of the supervising prosecutor in relation to himself and convicted Sergey Tsapok and Igor Chernykh.

Anna Mitrenko has stressed that for the POC it does not matter who is the person in custody and under what charges he had been convicted.