Chechnya: inmates of Chernokozovo Corrective Colony are on hunger strike

The prisoners kept in the Corrective Colony No. 2, situated in the Chechen village of Chernokozovo, have announced a hunger strike, a relative of one of the Colony inmates told today to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, the hunger-strike was started in the morning, and the prisoners want to go on with it.

"Today I had a meeting with my brother, and he told me that the whole Colony is on hunger strike. The reason is that after the fight two days ago, a search was conducted in their cells, and all their personal things were confiscated. I think it to be an outrage: why everybody should suffer because of a handful of hooligans?" the interlocutor told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

We remind you that on April 22 a mass fight among inmates burst out in the Corrective Colony No. 2 in Chernokozovo, as a result of which 11 persons were damaged. An eyewitness of the incident told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about it.

"About a hundred inmates were fighting. It was not just a fight, they used knives, forks, iron rods; eleven persons were taken to an outside hospital with leg and arm fractures, internal bleedings, one inmate had his kidney pierced with a needle," he said. According to the eyewitness, the fight was caused by an internal conflict among the prisoners.

"A former ORB-2 (Special Search Bureau) employee was brought to the Colony for serving his term, and other inmates decided to punish him. This caused the conflict. Former militiamen, now inmates, stood in his defence, and the fight started," said one of the inmates.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Federal Service of Punishment Enforcement of the Chechen Republic denied the information about wounded inmates, however, confirmed a minor fight.