On July 2, Zubovo-Polyansky District Court convicted the former head of Correctional Facility 14 in Mordovia Yuri Kupriyanov. He was charged with organizing the forced labor of 210 women in a clothing manufacture and was given a two-year suspended sentence. The court’s press relations service reported this to the correspondent of 7x7.
The prosecutor requested 2.5 years in a standard regime penal colony for Yuri Kupriyanov. However, the court decided to give him a two-year suspended sentence. In addition, the colony’s ex-head is prohibited to work in government entities within two years.
Yuri Kupriyanov was charged with criminal articles on abuse of office and forgery in office. According to investigators, he forced 210 convicts to work overtime in a clothing manufacture, including at night, in November and December 2018. The women worked 15 hours a day, six days a week. Prisoner Indira Bagayeva complained about this. In December 2018, the colony was inspected by the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia's central office. The investigators considered Kupriyanov to forge orders for the prisoners' overtime work.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a former member of the Pussy Riot band, was serving her sentence for the Mother of God, Drive Putin Away Action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in colony No. 14. She spoke about the facility’s management putting ongoing pressure on the convicts and "inhuman" working conditions.
