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The Federal Penitentiary Service enforcement inspection has refused to send lawyer Sergei Salazkin to a settlement colony to serve his sentence. This was reported by his OVD-Info lawyer, Evgenia Ryzhkova.
In April this year, Salazkin was sentenced to one and a half years in a settlement colony for posts on Odnoklassniki about Russian strikes on Kramatorsk and Chernihiv. On 17 July, the sentence was upheld at the appeal stage.
According to Evgenia Ryzhkova, on Friday 25 July, Sergei Salazkin travelled from Buzuluk, a town in the Orenburg region near the southern Urals, to the Federal Penitentiary Service enforcement inspection for Orenburg region in Orenburg. An FSIN officer stated that the question of sending the convicted person to a settlement colony “cannot be decided” because the agency has not received documents from the courts of first and second instance confirming the sentence has entered into legal force. Salazkin was sent home.
Today, 28 July, he personally collected a copy of the appeal decision from the Orenburg Regional Court and went again to the inspection office. The officers again said the documents would not be accepted, because along with the appeal decision there should also be a request from the district court.
“I can’t live here [in Orenburg]. My temporary ID expired yesterday, 27 July. They won’t take me to the colony. Am I supposed to stand outside the Federal Penitentiary Service office with a picket saying ‘Take me to prison’? <…> And what if I’d evaded and not shown up at the [inspection] by the date specified in the sentence? That’s a crime—I’d essentially be failing to comply with a court order!” said Salazkin.
The assistant to the deputy chair of the Orenburg Regional Court, in a conversation with the convicted person, noted that the criminal case had only been sent from the regional court to the Buzuluk District Court today. As Salazkin told OVD-Info, the following exchange took place with the court staff member:
—Until the criminal case arrives at the district court and until they send the documents to the Federal Penitentiary Service by post, they can’t take you to start serving your sentence, the staff member said.
—Do you not find this situation absurd?
—That question is not open for an answer…
—But how! This violates my rights. According to Russian law, I’m considered someone sentenced to a criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment. All of this seriously violates my rights. <…> I turned up [at the inspection], as it says in the sentence. As I heard it and my lawyer did. <…>
—Sergei Vyacheslavovich, there’s no other procedure for carrying out the sentence…
The convicted person added that “no one explained” the details of the sentence entering into force “in the open court session.” He said that because of the courts' negligence he will file a complaint with the regional prosecutor’s office.
- Lawyer Sergei Salazkin was sentenced to a custodial term under the article for spreading knowingly false information about the Russian army (Part 1, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Prosecutors had requested that the Buzuluk resident be sentenced to two years of forced labour.
- In mid-May last year, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers came to the man and searched his flat as part of a preliminary inquiry. All his electronics were seized, but he was released. During the investigation, Salazkin was under a travel ban. Charges were brought in July that year.
- In June 2021 it became known that Salazkin had a protocol drawn up against him under the article on contempt of authority (Part 3, Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because of an image on VKontakte with the caption: “An open letter to the President of the Russian Federation: go to ***.” In August, the case was discontinued due to expiry of the statute of limitations.