Investigators in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region are working to identify two prison guards who were filmed beating prisoners.
In a 14-minute video, uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, prisoners can be seen lined up along a corridor wall, standing spread-eagled. The poor quality footage shows the men being taken individually into a shower room and beaten on the head and torso by guards using their fists.
While Richard Wagner’s opera “Flight of the Valkyries” plays in background, guards can be heard shouting at the prisoners about their refusal to participate in prison-mandated exercise.
The video is attributed to “Deputy Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Krasnoyarsk Region N.V. Shakhov,” and the agency’s official website lists a Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai V. Shakhov as interim chief of security, the Newsru website reported Wednesday.
According to the regional arm of Russia’s Investigative Committee, sometime between 2012 and April 21, 2018, guards at a prison run by the Federal Penitentiary Service in the village ofOktyabrsky in Krasnoyarsk’s Boguchansky District exceeded their authority by committing “violence against convicts,” Newsru reported, citing regional authorities.
A criminal investigation is underway, the committee said.
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