Court quashes sentence for torture and extortion gang

The Chelyabinsk Cassation Court has overturned harsh sentences for two residents of Yekaterinburg in a high-profile case. They were accused of extortion in Correctional Colony No. 2 (IK-2). Victims, who surrendered property and businesses right within the prison walls, reported torture, abuse, and sexual violence.

The cases of Vyacheslav Vashchenko (sentenced to 9 years in prison) and Alexander Korobkov (7 and a half years in prison) have been returned to the regional court for reconsideration by a different panel of judges. The sentences for the other participants (Kirillov, Protasov) remain in force. Another defendant, Georgy Angelichev, fled from justice. His case has been separated into separate proceedings.

«It is necessary to eliminate the violations of criminal procedural law that were committed and to give a comprehensive assessment of the arguments in the appeal and cassation complaints,» stated in the court«s reasoning.

All the convicted individuals were so-called activists in IK-2. They cooperated with the administration and received privileges. In court, they denied extortion and were only willing to admit guilt concerning abuse of power.

«The defense has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against one of the judges, who in delivering the decision expressed a »dissenting opinion« and called the victim in the Klok case a thief, referring to a criminal case against him that was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. And that allegedly he cannot claim the return of property taken from him. If the new court adopts this position, then 80 million rubles (approximately $889,000 at current rates) will not have to be recovered from the convicted activists (whom the victims accused of torture and violence),» commented Nikita Koshakov, the lawyer for Mikhail Klok, on the new turn in the case.

«Terrible things happened in this colony: people were forced to transfer apartments and all property, pay »contributions.« Otherwise, they were killed and maimed, raped, with it filmed on video. Inmates slit their wrists when they realized they were being sent to IK-2. All this came to light after the death of one prisoner in 2015, but then they tried to hush up the scandal, and most of those involved in this scheme avoided responsibility, only a few were punished,» an informed source told E1.RU.

In 2017, after the scandal involving a prisoner«s murder, only five activists from IK-2 and the former deputy head of the institution, Mikhail Belousov, ended up in the dock. They all received from four to six years in prison for abuse and violent acts against prisoners. Torture and rapes were systematized and recorded on mobile phone cameras. Using such brutal methods, the perpetrators gained enormous profits, amounting to tens and hundreds of millions of rubles. However, those at the top of this pyramid were never found.

The most well-known victims of the extortionists were Mikhail Klok and Dmitry Chuprakov—the owner and co-owner of a base on Komsomolskaya. They described how in IK-2 they were tied up and beaten with sticks, threatened with sexual violence, and had water poured through a towel over their faces until they began to choke. As a result, right in the colony, they transferred the base, worth hundreds of millions, to a specified person. This was captured on video. Then the base passed to influential businessman Alexander Gorbunov (arrested in absentia, — Ed.).

According to witness and victim Valery Povarov, who also went through IK-2, special devices were adapted for rapes, to which a person was tied, and everything was filmed on video.

«They raped guys right in front of me practically, in the shower room. Or they took them to the second floor to their place. During searches [after the raid and criminal case], a bunch of photos were seized. These activists had entire rooms filled with tracksuits, televisions, computers,» Povarov said.

In court, the victims stated that criminal authority with the nickname Bulka—Alexander Bulakov, who shot a person in the 2000s—actively participated in the torture and extortion. His case was separated into separate proceedings and he was sentenced to 10 years. According to witnesses, he closely communicated with Alexander Gorbunov. He was declared wanted a year and a half after he left Russia and moved to live in another country.

The investigation into the torture and extortion proceeded very difficultly. For almost 10 years, no one listened to the victims, and when the case reached court, a fixer lawyer came to one of the defendants with an interesting proposal. A mysterious client wanted to ensure that there would be no sentence. Then the extortion case was unexpectedly returned to the prosecutor«s office.

Read about how the name of the client in the extortion gang case, in whose interests Mikhail Klok transferred the base on Komsomolskaya right on the colony territory, was classified. And how the torture chamber in the center of Yekaterinburg operated.

All information about the Yekaterinburg «octopus,» which united several high-profile murders and other serious crimes, we collect in one section.