Tumgoev's lawyer reported a deterioration in his condition

Timur Tumgoev, a native of Vladikavkaz, who was placed in a punishment cell in a Vologda colony, has lost a lot of weight and still does not receive medical care, his lawyer said. The pressure on Tumgoev in the colony may be due to his religion, the article, and the operational interest of the FSB, the human rights activist believes.

"Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote that the administration of the colony in the Vologda region does not allow Timur Tumgoev, a native of Vladikavkaz, convicted in a case of participation in military operations in Syria, to call a lawyer and does not provide medical care. The prisoner's sister was not allowed to meet with him, since Tumgoev was placed in a punishment cell. In protest, Tumgoev went on a hunger strike and swallowed several metal objects, including a blade, a needle, and bolts, and also mutilated himself.

Timur Tumgoev's lawyer Mikhail Mikheev was able to see him in the prison, and the prisoner gave him a written complaint about the actions of the prison administration. The lawyer confirmed that Tumgoev was still not receiving medical care.

According to Mikheev, Tumgoev looked bad compared to the previous meeting. "He lost weight, despite the problems, they are not examining him," he said. Tumgoev told the lawyer the reason for his persecution: he was walking without putting his hands behind his back, as prisoners must do according to the prison's internal regulations.

"Now I am busy drafting an expanded complaint, the basis for which will be the complaint written by Timur himself. Since he was not sure that this statement would not get lost if he gave it to the colony administration, he gave it to me. When I finish writing it, I will send it to the prosecutor's office, which oversees the implementation of laws in the penal colony," the lawyer said.

The head of the colony where Timur Tumgoev is serving his sentence demanded that his sister influence the prisoner. "I later found out that Timur's prayer rug and Koran were taken away, which was the beginning of his demands to the administration. And while I was standing in front of the gates of the colony and waiting to be allowed in for a visit, the head of the colony Borodin himself came out to me and told me to tell my brother to "calm down." But when I asked to be allowed in for this visit, he refused: "It is not allowed," Marina Tumgoeva told the "Caucasian Knot".

Lawyer Mikheev noted that even he needed three hours to meet his client, despite having a warrant, and not allowing Marina Tumgoeva to see her brother was “at the very least impolite treatment.” “She came specially from the North Caucasus, registered through Gosuslugi, and was not allowed in,” he noted.

Tumgoev’s harassment in the penal colony may be due to both the persecution of Muslims that is common in Russian places of detention, and the fact that the FSB may continue to be interested in his case, believes the founder of the Gulagu.net project Vladimir Osechkin (included in the register of foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice).

“In the last month and a half, we have heard quite often about the harassment and abuse of Muslim prisoners, especially Azerbaijanis. At the same time, when people lose their temper in response, a video is edited from this, where there is no mention of what happened before, and it is used in the case, and the person receives a penalty for the violation. Tumgoev’s article could also play a role here, plus the profuchet, and perhaps he continues to be the target of operational development by the FSB, to whose calls and “requests” the FSIN employees promptly respond,” he told the “Caucasian Knot”.

The human rights activist also noted that both the “Vologda Pyatak” and other places of detention in the Vologda region are “traditionally torture centers,” and their employees and administration have been creating a “subculture of pressure on prisoners” for more than ten years. The conditions of detention in the punishment cell, which Tumgoev’s sister described, are also determined by the location of the colony. "They are on an island, in the middle of a lake and swamps, that's where the dirt and dampness come from," he noted.

According to Tumgoev's letter, the prosecutor's office employee treated his complaints "extremely formally," so it is practically impossible to hope for the prosecutor's office's help in defending the prisoner's rights, Osechkin believes. "Everything is extremely sad: if the prosecutor knows that a person is under the control of the FSB, then he will not interfere, even if he observes an obvious violation of human rights. Therefore, now the only possible method of protecting the prisoner's rights is maximum publicity. This, of course, will not move the prison guards to pity, but the FSB can loosen its grip," he concluded.

Employees of the FSIN and the colony refused to comment on the situation to the "Caucasian Knot," and the regional POC said that they were not familiar with the situation.

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