MOSCOW, October 27 (RAPSI) – The Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykia has upheld a lower court’s ruling finding several employees of a penal colony guilty of beating prisoners, lawyer Andrey Sabinin told RAPSI on Friday.

The ruling of the Elista City Court came into force. Prison staff, including a doctor, were sentenced to terms varying from 1 to 11 years in a penal colony. The Supreme Court lowered the sentence for one of the defendants, deputy head of the penal colony Baat Dordzhiyev, by three months.

On September 20, 2012, officers of the operative and security departments, along with deputy head of the special department were beating prison inmates on camera demanding the convicts to obey order.

In 2015, three members of the prison staff beat convicted Dmitry Batyrev 60 times for refusing to introduce himself. Dordzhiyev ordered to obscure camera’s zone of sight to hide the beating. Prison doctor, aware of the beating, did not take any measures to stop it or to provide emergency help to the victim, who died shortly afterward. Later, Dordzhiyev called for officers responsible for the beating to present the event as if the inmate attacked staff with a blade.