In Volgograd, court refuses to consider prisoner’s complaint about conditions in SIZO

Convicted Konstantin Fokin filed to court a claim against the Federal Penitentiary Service and demanded to pay him 500,000 roubles in compensation for moral damages for poor conditions in a Volgograd SIZO (pre-trial prison). The court refused to consider the claim, as the statute of limitations had been missed.

According to Konstantin Fokin, cells in the SIZO were overcrowded, and people had to sleep in turns, and only two people could find places at a table for eating, while the rest had to eat on the floor. According to the resident of Volgograd, the table for eating was placed a meter from an unenclosed toilet, and people had to wash dishes over the toilet, where the tap with cold water was located. Furthermore, the cell had unsanitary conditions, no forced ventilation worked, and the walls were covered with fungus, the “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports.

Representatives of the defendant stated that the statute of limitations for filing a claim had passed. The court noted that the missed deadline for filing a claim without a good reason, as well as the impossibility of restoring the missed deadline for filing a claim, were grounds for refusing to grant the claim.

Earlier, the “Caucasian Knot” has reported that a man serving his sentence in Kabardino-Balkaria filed a claim against a penitentiary institution and pre-trial prison in Novorossiysk, claiming that he had contracted HIV there. His claim was dismissed.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.