A Russian court on Monday sentenced an incarcerated 30-year old Tajikistan man to three years imprisonment and a fine of 14,215 rubles (approximately US $180) for deliberate false accusation, after the man accused staff members at a detention center of physically beating him.

According to the court, the Tajik citizen wished to inculpate staff of Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Irkutsk of exceeding official authority. Officials said the man “caused himself bodily harm in the form of a bruise on the bottom eyelid of his left eye” and ” a scratch on the inner surface of the left shoulder.” The court conducted an investigation into allegations and found no evidence of physical abuse from staff members, and the man reportedly pled guilty to fabricating injuries.

In December 2025, the same court sentenced former Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 head Igor Mokeev and former deputy Anton Samara to five and four-and-a-half years imprisonment, respectively, for exceeding official authority. The court found 24 victims of abuse. Six were compensated with payments of 350,000 rubles (approximately US $4,500) each, the rest are pending.

Prison abuse and torture is a widespread problem in Russia. In 2023, a Petrozavodsk court sentenced former detention center head Ivan Savelyev and former deputy Ivan Kovalev to seven years imprisonment each for torture. In 2022, a Yaroslavl court sentenced detention center personnel Sergey Gusarin, Sergey Kuzmin and Vyacheslav Shashkin to three to three-and-a-half years each. The correctional officers were also found guilty of torturing prisoners, one of whom died.

Reports and videos of abuse and torture are collected and stored by the International Human Rights Project Gulagu.net.

Since the March 2024 terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, human rights groups have also identified an increase in hate and abuse directed towards central Asians in Russia. Central Asian detainees have reported an increase in physical, psychological, sexual, and religious abuse in detention centers.

On Monday, Yakubdzhoni Davlatkhon Yusufzoda, one of the 19 people sentenced in relation to the Crocus City Hall attack, reportedly committed suicide in prison. Yusufzoda pled not guilty but was sentenced for transferring money to cover living costs of terrorists who committed the attack. Another sentenced accomplice, Dzhabrail Aushev, also attempted to take his own life but was revived by doctors. Aushev was accused of “converting blank-firing weapons into live firearms used in the attack.”