MOSCOW, April 13 (RAPSI) – A court in Russia’s Republic of Karelia has ordered the former chief of a local penal colony Ivan Savelyev to be put in detention in a torture case, the victims’ lawyer Roman Masalev has told RAPSI.

His former deputy Ivan Kovalev has been placed under house arrest.

The defendants are charged with abuse of authority. They could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

According to investigators, in February 2014, Savelyev and Kovalev beat a convict. A criminal case was opened 5.5 years later, when a torture video was published on the Internet. Moreover, in the fall of 2019, several inmates accused then authorities of the penal colony of tortures, but the both officials continued their employment activity.