The Murom Court of the Vladimir Region declared illegal the actions of the Angarsk SIZO-6 employees who did not allow a lawyer to see the convicts, according to the human rights project For Human Rights*.
Training base near SIZO-6. Photo: Victoria Ivleva/for Novaya
The lawyer Yulia Chvanova was denied access to the convicts because they allegedly took part in the prison riot on April 9-10, 2020 in the correctional colony -15 Irkutsk region. As the prisoners reported, it was a forced protest against violence, including sexual violence, by the FSIN officers. It was through violence that testimonies were beaten out of them so that they confessed to organizing the riots.
A criminal case of torture was initiated on the fact of these tortures.
A lawsuit filed by a lawyer from the Foundation “In Defense of the Rights of Prisoners”* Yulia Chvanova concerned the violation of her right to unhindered access to convicts.
The position of the Irkutsk Region Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was that no one has the right to provide legal assistance to prisoners, except for their direct lawyers in a specific criminal case, she said Tayge.info by Chvanova.
“She [Investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Irkutsk Region Tatyana Saprankova] interprets this as follows: Art. 18 of the Federal Law stipulates that the accused and the suspect are given a meeting with the defense counsel, since I am not their defense counsel in the criminal case that is being processed by Saprankova, I cannot visit them. And the fact that they are convicts — I have to come to her, take permission, and only after that I can enter, — said Chvanova. — That is, she believes that I am a different person who provides legal assistance. And the fact that the powers of a lawyer are confirmed by a warrant and a certificate, and no other documents can be asked from a lawyer, she says: “Well, nobody cares about that.”