Victims criticize judgement on Dmitry Batyrev's death case

Some of those convicted in the case of Dmitry Batyrev's death in Kalmyk Colony No. 1 received unduly short prison terms, the victims' advocate has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 12, the Elista City Court sentenced seven employees of Colony No. 1 after finding them guilty of the death of the convict Dmitry Batyrev and of beating up other prisoners. On October 27, the Supreme Court of Kalmykia considered the complaint against the verdict and reduced the imprisonment term appointed to Baatr Dordjiev, Deputy Head of the Colony, from three years down to two years and nine months of colony-settlement. The sentence to the remaining six convicts was left unchanged.

Baatr Dordjiev had initially received an undeservedly short prison term, said Sergey Burgustinov, a victims' advocate, in his comment on the decision of the Kalmykia's Supreme Court of. He has noted that he has a "twofold" attitude to the decision of the Supreme Court.

"The case has finally been resolved – the verdict has entered into force; the convicts for Dmitry Batyrev's death have received their deserved punishments. In this sense, I am satisfied with the sentence; however, the ruling of the Supreme Court has failed to change my opinion on the severity of punishments. I believe that the Elista City Court had wrongly reduced the terms demanded by the state prosecution," Mr Burgustinov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.