The hostage-taking in Surovikino led to the conviction of a prisoner from another penal colony.

A court sentenced a prisoner in Komi to three years in a maximum-security prison, finding him guilty of justifying terrorism for conversations with cellmates about the hostage-taking at Penal Colony No. 19 in the Volgograd Region in the summer of 2024.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on August 23, 2024, at Penal Colony No. 19 in Surovikino, four prisoners (natives of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), declaring themselves supporters of the Islamic State*, took 12 people hostage. Three prison staff members were killed, and another later died in the hospital. Kommersant later reported, citing the Volgograd Region Health Committee, that another prison staff member had died in the hospital; this information has not been officially confirmed. Those involved in the hostage-taking were killed in the assault. The Volgograd Region Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service called reports of poor living conditions and oppression of Muslims fake, without providing evidence.

The case of 25-year-old prisoner Yevgeny Marchenko, accused of justifying terrorism (Part 1 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code), was heard by a military court in St. Petersburg on September 29. Marchenko is currently serving a sentence in a penal colony in the Yaroslavl Region, but at the time of the events heard by the court, he was in a pretrial detention facility in Komi.

According to the prosecution, Marchenko made a "public verbal statement aimed at justifying terrorism" while discussing the hostage-taking in Penal Colony No. 19 in the Volgograd Region with his cellmates. Case materials indicate that Marchenko's cellmate was a fellow inmate, Khuseinov. Both held "radical" views toward FSIN officers, "publicly justified terrorism, called for extremist activity, and incited hatred based on social grounds," according to Mediazona (listed by the Russian Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent).

According to the transcript of the case, Marchenko called the participants in the hostage-taking in the Volgograd Region "handsome men," explaining that they "attempted to undermine the regime that was imposed on them." The expert analysis found in his words approval, praise, and positive evaluation of the participants in the hostage taking in Surovikino, but found no calls for violence.

Yevgeny Marchenko himself denied his guilt, claiming the conversation was provoked. Investigators staged an "experiment" involving an inmate with whom Marchenko was friends, a certain Chirkov: the latter, equipped with a voice recorder, deliberately struck up a conversation with Marchenko, asking him how he felt about the events in the Volgograd region.

Five of Marchenko and Chirkov's cellmates testified in favor of the accused. One of them stated that Marchenko said the aforementioned phrases as a joke, and that in his presence, the accused disapproved of the terrorist attack in Surovikino. Khuseynov, mentioned in the case as Marchenko's ally, stated that he primarily communicated with other cellmates who didn't speak Russian. All others also failed to testify against Marchenko. Chirkov did not participate in the trial, having been released and left Russia. In his testimony to investigators, he claimed that Marchenko encouraged other prisoners to go on hunger strikes and also held a negative attitude toward FSIN officers and the Russian government.

The prosecutor requested seven years and five months in a maximum-security penal colony for Marchenko. The court sentenced him to three years; after the new term was combined with the previous one, the prisoner was given five years in a maximum-security prison.

* A terrorist organization banned in Russia.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.