A new criminal case has been opened against the defendant in the Anti-Torture Project case.

The Investigative Committee has opened a new criminal case against 27-year-old Ksenia Garina from Irkutsk Oblast, who is already a defendant in the Anti-Torture Project case. OVD-Info has obtained a copy of the document initiating the case.

On 5 June, she was charged with incitement to disrupt the operation of a penal colony (Part 3, Article 321 of the Criminal Code, with reference to Part 4, Article 33) and two counts of assault (Article 116 of the Criminal Code, with reference to Part 4, Article 33).

According to investigators, Garina allegedly used posts in the Anti-Torture Project’s Telegram channel and “VKontakte” group to incite three prisoners to attack “activists”—that is, inmates who collaborated with prison staff from the FSIN.

In two of the three cases, the investigators have cited specific posts where they claim to have found incitement. The posts use a similar format: they specify the region, the alleged “activist’s” nickname, the nature of their collaboration with the prison authorities, and urge victims to report incidents of violence. One of the posts reads:

“SVERDLOVSK OBLAST

Kapo-Handler

Nickname: SICH

At Penal Colony 2 in Yekaterinburg, acting under the protection of the administration, beat and tortured People.

If you suffered at the hands of or on the orders of these individuals, please let us know the details of what happened: dates, institutions, location—cell/barracks/quarantine, staffroom (?) etc. And the methods used against you. Email: Antipytki38@gmail.com.”

The second post concerns a prisoner nicknamed “Zima” and differs only in its description of his collaboration with the prison authorities: “He has served time all over the Urals, he’s from the Urals, specifically from the suburb of Serov, he’s spent his whole life in torture camps. He was the head chairman of the SDiP under special regime at Penal Colony 63, also served two stints at Penal Colony 47 and met new arrivals, also spent time in press huts at SIZO-1 jail, and engaged in in-cell surveillance.”

These posts were published on 7 March 2023, but the two assaults linked to them by law enforcement took place in February 2024.

According to the investigators, before attacking the “activists” both prisoners subscribed to the Anti-Torture pages from their own phones, after which, “having been incited by the moderator, they developed a criminal intent aimed at committing assaults against a social group comprising those assisting staff of Russian penal institutions, as well as those involved in operational investigative work, out of social hatred and enmity.”

Garina’s lawyer, Roman Kachanov, told OVD-Info that his client does not admit guilt in the new case. The defence questions whether the attackers actually learned about the “activists” from the Anti-Torture pages.

“Prisoners know perfectly well who the activists are without any Telegram channels or ‘VKontakte.’ Everyone there knows everything—what everyone looks like, and so on,” the lawyer insisted.

This case has been merged with the main Anti-Torture Project case, in which, apart from Garina, six other people are defendants.

The main case was opened in autumn 2024. Seven people from various regions have been charged with recruiting for an extremist community (Part 1.1, Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), which the authorities classify the Anti-Torture Project as. Six of the defendants have been remanded in custody.

Investigators claim that by posting materials on the Anti-Torture Project’s social media pages, the defendants recruited prisoners to participate in the project’s activities. As evidence, investigators cite assaults on “activists,” allegedly carried out as a result of Anti-Torture publications.

The project’s founder, Roman Rugevich, maintains that most of those detained were subscribers to the Anti-Torture channel, but not participants in or moderators of the project. Garina also denies guilt in the main case, stating that she did not engage in any illegal activities but simply helped prisoners correct spelling mistakes in their complaints.