A convict whose violent beating by prison guards was caught on video and led to a mass outcry over prison torture in Russia has died from double pneumonia, his mother told independent media Monday.
Video of Yevgeny Makarov’s torture northeast of Moscow was leaked in 2018, prompting a series of investigations across Russian correctional facilities and a government promise to crack down on prison torture.
Makarov was 29 at the time of his death from double pneumonia in a hospital bed, his mother Tatiana Shishova told the Mozhem Obyasnit Telegram news channel.
At least three hospitals were unable to provide adequate medical care for blood clots that had formed in his vessels from violent beatings in prison.
Eleven former guards were convicted on charges of abuse of power and jailed for up to four years, while senior prison officials escaped prosecution.
A series of prison torture leaks has followed Makarov’s explosive video in the years since.
Torture and sexual violence inflicted on inmates have long been systemic in Russia’s vast penitentiary system, prison monitors say, but the videos have cast new light on such abuses.