Victim’s mother, a former prisoner, and an eyewitness to the beating told ASTRA about this on an audio recording available to the editorial office. The attack took place in IK-7 in Zelenokumsk, Stavropol Region.
As Ekaterina, the mother of the beaten woman, told ASTRA (the name was changed at the request of the heroine, — ed.), on October 22 (October 23 was mistakenly indicated in the mother’s appeals and complaints, — ed.), her daughter (disabled 2 gr.) had an argument with one of the convicts at the daily morning service. After hearing the argument, the head of the colony, Albert Bijiev, approached her and tried to find out who the girl was in conflict with. Twice she answered: “Not with anyone.” The third time, the prisoner said, “By myself.” According to her mother, after that, Bijiev grabbed her daughter by her clothes and threw her to the ground, after which he threw a stone at her. The convicts nearby heard the victim scream. Then Bidzhiev continued beating the prisoner behind a payphone booth, Ekaterina said.
The same version of events is confirmed by an audio recording of the story of one of the eyewitnesses of the beating, which was at the disposal of ASTRA.
“It was from the parade ground that we saw him take her in the direction of the library. He just took her for a greenie (“greenie” in the colony is called a green—colored uniform) and like a piece of meat being thrown away, he threw her away, just like that. And we hear her scream. Then he took a rock and threw a rock at her. And another scream. And he went behind the library, from the parade ground, which was not visible behind the payphone. After that, we saw her in the medical unit and her whole face was blue and purple,” says one of the prisoners who witnessed the beating on the audio recording.
As the victim’s mother tells ASTRA, after the incident, her daughter and other prisoners were intimidated: she was offered a “choice” — either a detention center or to officially declare that she herself “fell down.” “Well, of course, under pressure, she agreed to say that she had fallen,” says Ekaterina. The eyewitnesses did the same under pressure, the woman claims. The surveillance footage that was supposed to record the moment of the beating has disappeared, she says. The fact that prisoners of IK-7 are indeed regularly beaten by the head of the colony, Bijiyev, is confirmed in a conversation with ASTRA by Elena, who was released from the colony 2 years ago (the name was changed at the request of the heroine, — editor’s note).
“Everyone knew that he beat girls in the detention center, that he raised his hand. But this has never happened in front of everyone or on camera,” says Elena. “My daughter recently called me, complaining of severe pain in the occipital region. After the beating, she was not provided with medical assistance, the medical unit does not respond to her complaints,” the victim’s mother tells ASTRA.
The woman demands to carry out an inspection, provide medical assistance to her daughter and bring to justice the head of the colony for the beating. “I called the Directorate of Internal Security yesterday, they said that the case had not been opened, there was no reason. What grounds do they need if the facts speak for themselves? How could the daughter have moved from the parade ground to the library at the moment when roll call is underway? How could she have fallen so that her face was so blue and her knees were torn? Why, when they took her to the medical unit, they covered her face with a headscarf, and no one was allowed to see her so that the girls wouldn’t see her bruises?” the woman is indignant.
We sent a request to the Federal Penitentiary Institution IK-7 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation for the Stavropol Territory, but at the time of publication there was no response.
