Human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Council under the President Eva Merkacheva said that after attempting to enlist in the war from a colony, convicted Interior Ministry colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko was placed in a punishment cell.
According to Merkacheva, Zakharchenko, who is serving a sentence in IK-5 of Mordovia, is trying to enlist in the war in Ukraine. “He repeatedly wrote to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation personally and through representatives, and received a response from the local military commissariat about including him in the list of candidates to be sent to the front. But at a personal reception at the Ministry of Defense, Zakharchenko’s lawyer was informed that despite the fact that Dmitry Viktorovich is suitable for the military forces and the armed forces need experienced personnel, someone is artificially blocking Zakharchenko’s candidacy,” writes the human rights activist.
When recruiters recently arrived at the colony, Zakharchenko, along with two other prisoners, tried to meet with them in order to go to the front. Together they left the industrial zone during a break, for which they received a punishment, since in a correctional institution, convicts are prohibited from moving in groups. Since the colonel had previously had penalties, he was sent to a punishment cell.
In the isolation ward, according to Merkacheva, Zakharchenko is in difficult conditions: it is cold in the cell, and he was not allowed to take a sweater with him. At the same time, the colonel was afraid that his term in the punishment cell would be extended due to a violation of the routine, according to which the prisoner must get up at 5 am and go to bed at 9 pm. There is no clock in the camera, and the radio does not work, so it is almost impossible to find out the exact time.
“Zakharchenko determined the time by the light bulb: as he noticed, with lights out it begins to dim, and from 5 o’clock in the morning it shines a little brighter. But focusing only on the light bulb turned out to be problematic. As a result, he actually did not sleep for 7 days, afraid of missing curfew. He tried to check the time by asking the attendant and watching the strip of light from the window. However, the officers considered that Zakharchenko had violated the rules and extended his time in the punishment cell,” Merkacheva said. As the human rights activist writes, Zakharchenko’s lawyer tried to find out how his client violated the order, but he was not provided with any documents confirming this.
The head of the “T” department of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dmitry Zakharchenko, was arrested in the fall of 2016. During the search, almost nine billion rubles were found on the colonel. Later, the court confiscated 13 apartments, 14 parking spaces and several cars from him.
Three years later, the colonel was sentenced to 13 years in prison for two counts of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code) and obstruction of justice using his official position (Part 3 of Article 294 of the Criminal Code), later the Moscow City Court slightly commuted the sentence. In May 2022, the sentence was increased to 16 years in prison, Zakharchenko was found guilty of several more episodes of accepting bribes amounting to more than 1.4 billion rubles. According to investigators, the colonel received bribes for 10 years.