 Source: HRO.org (info) ITAR-TASS reports that member of the Presidential Human Rights Council Ilya Shchablinsky has stated that complaints made by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova about conditions in the penal colony where she is being held are based on facts. "I have already spoken with a number of the prisoners and my hair stood on end,” he said. According to Grani.ru, at the same time member of the Public Chamber Maria Kannabikh said that she had met Tolokonnikova and that she “looks OK”, and it was warm in her cell. “I met with young women who are working with Tolokonnikova and they confirm that there have been no conflicts, and that they get on well with Tolokonnikova as a person,” Kannabikh added. Kannabikh added that the prisoners really do sometimes work for 11 or 12 hours on a shift. “The women with whom I talked said that it happens, but only if there is an emergency order for their work,” she said. Kannabikh told RIA Novosti that human rights defenders have yet to investigate that sanitary conditions in the penal colony and in the workshops, and talk to other prisoners. "There are very many factors here that demand discussion, investigation. We still have to talk to the young women who are serving terms there, look at the workshops, and we would like to see the health clinic as well. Everything that was written in the letter has to be looked into,” Kannabikh concluded. A group of members of the Human Rights Council, which includes, in addition to Kannabikh and Shchablinsky, Elena Masiuk, visited penal colony No. 14 on Wednesday 25 September. The human rights defenders are being accompanied by the head of the penitentiary service for Mordovia, Oleg Simchenkov. TV crews from REN TV and Rossiya-1 channels have also arrived at the colony. The Rossiya-1 crew was preparing a major report to be broadcast prime time on Thursday 26 September about the situation in the penal colony. |
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