Journalist Iryna Danylovych faces repeated death threats in Russian penal colony
Other prisoners regularly threaten to kill Iryna Danylovych, a Crimean journalist and human rights defender held at women’s penal colony No. 7 in Zelenokumsk, Russia’s Stavropol Krai, the Letters to Captivity initiative’s FSIN Archipelago project reported. According to human rights defenders, staff from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) witness the threats but take no action, while the colony’s administration effectively uses other prisoners to put pressure on the journalist.
Iryna Danylovych. Photo from publicly available sourcesOlha Novytska, Danylovych’s sister, confirmed that the colony’s administration had changed its tactics for harassing the journalist following a wave of complaints about staff conduct. According to human rights defenders, two other prisoners, Sh. and Zh., are held alongside Danylovych in the same unit. Their names are known to the ZMINA editorial office. Novytska said they believe they can act with impunity and regularly threaten Iryna, including telling her they would face no consequences for killing her.
“They clearly feel they can act with complete impunity and have the colony administration’s tacit encouragement. When threatening Iryna, they repeatedly stress that they would face no consequences for killing her,” the journalist’s sister stated.
Besides threatening her, the prisoners constantly play loud music on a radio near Danylovych. Radios are prohibited under the colony’s rules, but Novytska says prison officers openly ignore its use. Loud sounds are particularly painful for a journalist because she suffers from a serious ear condition following inadequate treatment in Russia’s prison system. The Danylovych previously said that every loud sound causes her sharp pain.
Related: ‘Sharper than physical pain – the feeling of helplessness’: speech of the imprisoned journalist
The FSIN Archipelago project also names Galyna S., a member of the colony’s staff who, according to human rights activists, treats Danylovych with particular cruelty. However, the authors do not disclose their sources, and these allegations require further corroboration.
The journalist’s sister said the colony’s administration had previously used other methods to put pressure on Danylovych. After complaints about torture using loud music and other forms of harassment, she said, the administration began involving other prisoners in the psychological abuse.
Danylovych previously described conditions at penal colony No. 7 herself. She said the administration forces prisoners to stand for hours on the parade ground and uses loud music and bright lights to put pressure on them. The floodlights in the barracks are so bright that the light gets through even a sleep mask and closed eyelids. In the morning, after turning off the lights, guards play music at full volume.
The journalist also described living conditions in the colony: inadequate heating causes ice to form on the walls of barracks housing hundreds of prisoners in winter, while the buildings overheat in summer.
She also reported problems with water, sanitation, food and access to showers.
Problems with medical care at the colony had been documented before. Nataliia Shcherbakova, a prisoner at penal colony No. 7, died in 2020. According to human rights defenders, she complained of pain in her side, fever and vomiting, but staff initially accused her of faking her symptoms. They sent her to work, and she was taken to hospital only several days later. She died of peritonitis.
Last year, reports also emerged that Albert Bidzhiiev, the colony’s head, had beaten a prisoner during roll call. The woman had a Group II disability. According to witnesses, Bidzhiiev threw her to the ground and beat her following a confrontation. She spent at least a week and a half in the medical unit. No criminal investigation was opened, and the publication reported that CCTV footage had disappeared.
Former prisoners also reported sexual harassment by Bidzhiiev. One said the colony’s head had tried to force her into sexual contact in his office. Another said he would touch her body and summon her to his office, and that after she refused his advances, she was transferred to a cell under stricter conditions of detention.
ZMINA previously reported that another prisoner had been enlisted to torture Iryna Danylovych in the Russian penal colony.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the US-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF) submitted Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych’s case to six UN Special Rapporteurs, urging immediate action because of her deteriorating health.
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