SK investigating use of violence on Baikal region inmates

ULAN-UDE, May 14 (Itar-Tass) - A criminal case was opened in the
Baikal region over disproportionate use of special means and physical
force on inmates by personnel of the regional department of the Federal
Penitentiary System (FSIN), senior aide to the director of the regional
Investigation Committee (SK)A Yegor Markov told Itar-Tass on Friday.
"Criminal proceedings were opened under Article 286, Part 3, item "a,"
against unidentified FSIN personnel. A probe has been launched into the
exceeding of office powers, which violated the inmates' right to personal
inviolability from criminal encroachment," Markov said, "there are more
than 40 injured parties. They are the inmates convoyed from the
Krasnokamensk penitentiary (which burnt down in April) to penitentiaries
4 and 5 in Chita."
A group of investigators was set up at the SK's Igodinsky district
office. It is questioning the injured parties. The leadership of the
regional SK department supervises the investigation.
The fire at the Krasnokamensk prison accommodating 1,037 inmates
(former YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was kept there for some time) broke
out early in the morning of April 17. It destroyed living quarters of
inmates, and a number of service structures, the club and the library.
Prosecutors said it had been an arson stated by a group of inmates.
The purpose of torching the penitentiary was the wish to unsettle the
operation of the penitentiary administration, the prosecutors said.
The SK said it had ascertained the identity of all the masterminds
behind the April 17 disturbances.
They approximately made up half of 25 initial suspects, an SK official
said.