Two Russian prison guards have been detained in an alleged torture case at a notorious penal colony in the city of Yaroslavl.
The Investigative Committee said in its statement on August 29 that Sardor Ziyabov and Dmitry Nikitinko were detained on suspicion of involvement in the beating of inmates.
The statement also said that investigators were trying to identify other possible suspects in the case.
The announcement comes six days after videos published online by Novaya Gazeta newspaper revealed fresh evidence of inmates being tortured and abused by guards at Corrective Colony No. 1 to the northeast of Moscow.
One of the videos shows several guards forcing inmates to run a gauntlet. The guards are also seen kicking inmates and beating them with their fists and rubber batons.
The videos were provided to Novaya Gazeta by the Public Verdict human rights organization, which suggested that they were shot some time in December 2016.
Some of the guards on the videos appeared to have been among the guards who appeared in another video made public in July.
That video showed an inmate being beaten by at least 17 guards at the same penal colony.
The release of the video caused a public outcry across Russia and led to the arrest of 12 guards.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has announced it will investigate all complaints from 2017 about alleged violence by prison guards across Russia.
United Nations human rights experts have urged Russian authorities to prosecute cases of torture in prisons and labor camps -- including beatings, electric shocks, and suffocation.
