Director of riot-hit Russian prison detained
CHELYABINSK. Dec 25 (Interfax) - The director of Penal Colony No. 6, located in the town of Kopeisk in Russia's Chelyabinsk region, has been detained as a suspect in a criminal investigation started after a protest that was staged in the penitentiary at the end of November, Vladimir Shishkov, spokesman for the Investigative Committee's local branch, told Interfax.
"Denis Mekhanov was detained on suspicion of exceeding his authority - Article 286 of the Russian Penal Code" Shishkov said.
A total of 250 convicts assembled in the corridor of the Kopeisk penal colony's living quarters before lunch on November 24 and demanded that the terms of confinement be eased, namely, that several convicts be released from the punishment cell where they had been confined for breaking internal regulations. The convicts did not put forward any other demands.
However, human rights activists claim that some 300 relatives of convicts gathered outside of the institution and the OMON riot police used force against them. They say both relatives and passers-by were affected.
Some 300 relatives of inmates gathered at the colony building. The police detained 38 people who were under the influence of alcohol. They were taken to police stations in Kopeisk and Chelyabinsk, where administrative protocols were made. Eight OMON special task police officers were injured while curbing administrative violations near the colony.
The local department of the Federal Penitentiary Institutions Service reported on November 26 that the situation at the penal colony was under control.
Investigators working in the prison have been receiving complaints from inmates, most of whom accused prison staff of extorting money from the inmates from 2008 to November 2012 by creating an uncomfortable environment and threatening to use physical force against them.
