Press Release 7.03.2024

Photo: Prisoners in Women’s Penal Colony No. 6 of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Altai Territory / Photo by Andrei Lukovsky, Kommersant

Anna Cherepanova, Deputy Chair of the Yabloko party and deputy of the Novgorod City Duma, sent complaints to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office, the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Commissioner for Human Rights about violations of the rights of women-prisoners in women’s penal colonies in the Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories. Political prisoner Maria Ponomarenko reported flagrant violations of the law in her letters to civil activists. Maria Ponomarenko is in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 in Barnaul now, as the investigation into her new criminal case is ongoing. Before that, she served her sentence in Penal Colony No 6 in the Altai Territory and Penal Colony No 22 in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It was there that Maria Ponomarenko encountered violations of the rights of prisoners.

In particular, in Penal Colony No 22 in the Krasnoyarsk Territory the following violations were recorded:

– gross violation of the right of prisoners to an eight hour sleep;

– in a garment factory, women have been working from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. or even midnight for years, while getting up in the colony at 5.40 a.m.;

– sleeping during the day is prohibited.

In Penal Colony No 6 in the Altai Territory the following violations were recorded:

– the administration of the penal colony encourages discrimination among women;

– many prisoners do not have a change of a robe or trousers;

– they are given shoes of a wrong size;

– women with complex illnesses are forced to do physically heavy work absolutely free of charge from morning to evening;

– women are constantly yelled and cursed at, insulted and humiliated;

– nutritional standards are violated;

– employees do not take into account the order of the day and deprive women of personal time;

антисанитария, нормы СанПина не соблюдаются.

– there are no doctors at all in the colony from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m., thus, in emergency situations there is no one to provide medical aid;

– women are kept in unsanitary conditions, Sanitary Regulations and Norms are not observed.

Yabloko Deputy Chair Anna Cherepanova asks the supervisory authorities in her appeal to carry out appropriate inspections of the conditions of detention of women in colonies, take the necessary measures and eliminate violations, and hold responsible officials accountable.

“Thank you, Maria, for not giving up and standing up for women’s rights and personal dignity in the penitentiary system, where they have been forgotten,” Anna Cherepanova publicly addresses political prisoner Maria Ponomarenko.

Anna CHEREPANOVA

is a Deputy Chair of Yabloko, a member of the Federal Bureau of Yabloko,

Chair of the Novgorod regional branch of the party.

Deputy of the Novgorod Duma