Some 30 convicts get extra jail sentences in case involving riots, penal colony arson in Transbaikalia in 2011
CHITA. Oct 19 (Interfax) - The Krasnokamensky City Court of the Transbaikalia Territory has handed down jail sentences ranging from 3.5 to nine years in prison to convicts charged in riots and setting fire to Penal Colony 10 in April 2011, the press service for the territory's prosecutor's office reported on Monday.
Well-known businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky served his sentence in the colony. The colony has now been rebuilt.
"Some convicts did not admit their guilt, but the state prosecutor provided the court with irrefutable evidence of every convicts' involvement to this or that degree," the report says.
It has been determined that all convicts, who were serving their terms in Penal Colony 10, took part in rioting and destruction of the colony's property in the early hours of April 17, 2011. The damage done to the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service is estimated at 36.7 million rubles.
The litigation lasted over two years and state prosecutors were supported by officials from the Krasnokamensk inter-district prosecutor's office. Dozens of witnesses were questioned and over 60 volumes of case materials were studied during the trial.
According to the press service, the criminal cases against the organizers of the riots in Penal Colony 10 were tried earlier.
According to earlier reports, at least 100 negative-minded convicts took part in riots in Penal Colony 10 and set fire to it in the early hours of April 17, 2011. All residential buildings and some administrative buildings of the colony were burned down. Firefighters were able to save the canteen and the medical units, production facilities, and also the inmate discipline cell.
The indictment was approved against 31 people.
In April 2012, prosecutors sent to court criminal case against four convicts of the colony involved in the riots. The most active convict was sentenced to six years in a high-security colony.