A prison guard in western Russia's Bryansk region has been detained on suspicion of suffocating an inmate to death by binding his face with a piece of cloth.
The Investigative Committee said on July 24 that the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) officer is accused of "using violence and special security means that limited a convict's ability to move."
The guard "bound [the inmate's] face with cloth, as a result of which the latter died of asphyxiation," the committee said in a statement. It said the incident occurred on July 22.
It is the second case of alleged violent abuse at a Russian penitentiary to emerge into the open in recent days.
The Investigative Committee said on July 23 that six FSIN officers were detained after a video showing the brutal beating of a prison inmate circulated in the Internet last week.
The video, which Public Verdict NGO said was shot at Corrective Colony No. 1 in the Yaroslavl region, northeast of Moscow, showed a prisoner identified as Yevgeny Makarov lying on a desk without pants while two people in uniform forcibly hold his hands up behind his back. At least 10 other uniformed men methodically hit the man's legs and heels with rubber truncheons and fists, while he cries and begs them to stop beating him.
The Investigative Committee said that all the officers on the video had been identified and a probe was launched into what it called "a crime."
A lawyer who gave a Russian newspaper the video has fled the country while seeking protection from state law enforcement authorities.
The FSIN said on July 24 that it will investigate all reports about violence in penitentiaries across Russia in 2017.