Izyaslav Penal Colony events to be followed up
According to information which the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group has received from a relative of one of the inmates of the Izyaslav Penal Colony No. 31 (Khmelnytsky region), on 25 January 2007, a special forces unit was used in the penal institution.
The officers of this unit are alleged to have beaten prisoners and applied other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment. It is also alleged that a number of prisoners received bodily injuries, and some had teeth broken. The use of the special unit was apparently connected with recent protest actions by the prisoners and their demand to have the head of the colony removed.
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group has sent a letter to the Prosecutor General calling for an investigation to be carried out.
We would ask everybody to approach the Prosecutor General and the State Department for the Execution of Punishments with similar demands.
Arkady Bushchenko, Legal Expert for the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
26 January 2006