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Prosecutors find negligence in prison, from which prisoner escaped

Shestakov who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for murder in 2000, escaped from the tough security penitentiary by helicopter

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, April 6 (Itar-Tass) —— The inquiry, which the prosecutor’s office conducted at the Sheksna penitentiary, from which prisoner Alexei Shestakov escaped by helicopter on March 22, found negligence in the actions of several penitentiary staffers, a source in the Prosecutor General’s Office told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“The inquiry has found numerous violations of the requirements of the criminal legislation over the prison rules, the prevention of wrongdoings and crimes, the coercion of convicts to labour, instructional activities, and the material and medical support of the convicts,” the source said.

“The guarding of the penitentiary was negligent, the security guard service, operational and correctional departments were understaffed. The systematic search was not made at the prison, therefore, the escaped prisoner could use freely a mobile phone for a long time, particularly for masterminding the escape,” the source said.

“The situation emerged in the penitentiary resulted from systematic violations of the requirements of the criminal legislation by penitentiary staffers and the territorial department of the state penitentiary system,” the press service said.

During the inquiry the detectives also found that the administrative committee of the penitentiary dropped Shestakov from the preventive register of convicts, which are inclined to escape “with rude violations of the criminal legislation, departmental regulatory legal acts, office instructions of the penitentiary notwithstanding the information about the actual behaviour and personality of Shestakov.”

“Since the detectives found the event of the crime under Article 293 Part 1 of the Criminal Code for negligence in the actions of the prison authorities, the materials against them were also passed to the detectives,” the source added.

The complex inquiry at the Sheksna penitentiary continues.

The Russian Investigation Committee said earlier on Friday that the criminal case was opened against deputy head of the penitentiary Alexander Belolikov, who is suspected of taking 10,000 roubles in bribe for the assistance to lift Shestakov from the register of convicts inclined to escape.

Alexei Shestakov, 33, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for murder in 2000, escaped from the tough security penitentiary by helicopter in the morning on March 22.

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