MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - The penitentiary department of the Smolensk Region in Northwest Russia said Thursday that 26 inmates at a local penal colony had gone on a hunger strike.
Some of the inmates deliberately slit their wrists, department head Igor Konovalov said.
"The inmates wanted to [cause] disorder [in] the penitentiary and make the administration weaken the regime," he said.
Konovalov denied media reports that 60 inmates at the colony had gone on the hunger strike to protest against the deployment of the Justice Ministry's special forces and the mass beating of young inmates.
Konovalov said the report spread false information that could aggravate the situation in Smolensk penitentiaries.
