A deaf recidivist from the pre-trial detention center “nightmarit” of comrades in misfortune: threatens death

In the community of the deaf, there are at least ten disabled people deceived by a criminal. Now he is again under criminal prosecution, sitting in the same pre-trial detention center with an 18-year-old deaf guy who was dragged into his dark affairs. Both are charged with attempted fraud - taking possession of an 89-year-old grandmother's apartment. The victim doesn't hear anything either. This is the cycle of the deaf in nature.

Features of crimes of the deaf and punishments for the deaf found out the columnist “MK”.

“I ask that the criminal activities of Mishchikhin, who is serving his sentence, be stopped. He calls on video and persuades people to enter into a criminal conspiracy for the purpose of illegal enrichment. What is the negligence of the colony? Why does Mishchikhin use a mobile phone and call the deaf via video link? Me too! How many fates this man has broken! Please stop him.

This is a letter from 18-year-old prisoner Alexei (name changed), who is in a pre-trial detention center near Moscow. The guy is a defendant in a criminal case initiated under part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy). According to investigators, he tried to re-register the apartment of an 89-year-old woman with a hearing disability. To do this, Alexey got into her trust: he helped with cleaning, bought groceries. His neighbors saw him as his great-grandson. During the investigation, it turned out that he acted not alone, but together with an adult accomplice-recidivist named Mishchikhin. He taught him, guided all his actions. From prison. Aleksey assures: Mishikhin first misled him and then frightened him.

Now Mishchikhin was taken from the colony for investigative actions to the detention center, the same one where Alexei is sitting. So he handed a pack of cigarettes to the guy in his cell, on which he wrote that he was about to end. We could have taken this calmly had it not been for the fact that Mishchikhin was serving time for murder. It is worth talking more about this character.

In November 2009, 21-year-old Alexander Mishchikhin lured his civilian sister Nina, 22, into the forest and stabbed her 18 times with a knife. The motive of the crime was a family conflict: Alexander constantly quarreled with Nina and mother-in-law, with whom he lived. The deceased Nina left a 3-month-old child

Since Mishchikhin had already been convicted of fraud, he was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security colony. He served his sentence in the Yaroslavl region. And there he tried to bribe an employee, for which he was brought under Article 291 of the Criminal Code through 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “attempted bribery”. Got another 4 years. And then Mishchikhin, judging by the characteristics filed in court, embarked on the path of correction, earned 64 incentives, led an active social life, was transferred to facilitated conditions of detention.

He was released in 2022. I got a painter. Became a father. But in the end, he again came under suspicion under part 2 of article 162 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation “robbery by a group of persons by prior conspiracy”. The sentence is 7 years imprisonment with serving in a strict regime colony.

So, Mishchikhin has at least 4 convictions.

How did a repeat offender get a mobile phone and start calling people with hearing disabilities? Good question.

The case file contains videotapes of those calls. On them Mishchikhin, for example, against the background of home kitchen. Explained by gestures: he is free, and rumors about his conviction spread enemies. And there's also a fake ID for Mishchikhin's police officer. He was a police officer and someone a businessman.

“The fraudster used belonging to the deaf community as the main tool of access to victims,” the representative of the deaf community said. Intragroup trust (“I am my own, deaf, I will not deceive you”) became the key to misleading and rubbing into trust. In general, people, especially people with disabilities, naturally trust those who look like them. For a deaf person, communicating in sign language often means not just convenience, but a deep sense of security and understanding that is lacking in the world of hearing. Fraudster used it as a "pass" to victims We don't know how many. We think it's at least 10. In general, deaf people may have less access to information about typical fraud schemes and how to verify financial offers. So the offender, serving a sentence, acted as simply as possible: he advertised for “a simple and well-paid job.” For a deaf person who often faces difficulties in finding a job, such an offer may seem like a salvation.

Something like that happened to Alex. The guy often visited Penza - there lives his beloved girl, also deaf. With Alexander, he met through another disabled woman: she offered to earn on the resale of apartments (promised 400 thousand, which would be useful for the upcoming wedding) and gave him the phone. At the other end was Mishchikhin via video link.

Let’s talk about the nature of calls from the colony. Deaf people behind bars do not have the opportunity to communicate with loved ones. According to the authorized taxi in the colony, they can not call – they cannot hear. Video taxis are not in every institution and not even in every region, and where there are, deaf people rarely manage to get permission for such calls. As a human rights defender, I have complaints from deaf prisoners: the administration of the IC cannot provide distance learning, psychological assistance, rehabilitation, etc., since the institution does not have a staff interpreter of sign language. In the colonies, there are no smartphones or tablets with the function of converting speech into text.

A recent request from the All-Russian Society of the Deaf to an organization that develops technical devices for recognizing (transcribing) speech into text came in response: their devices do not work without the Internet. And in the colony there is no Internet, so another version of the accessible environment for the disabled by hearing disappeared. Here is a message from one of the deaf women in the colony:

“The lack of light and vibrational fire alarms makes me vulnerable in emergency situations, as I cannot hear the audible alarms. The absence of visual duplication of voice messages of the administration, employees of the institution entails a violation of my right to receive information. When conducting checks on the presence of convicts, emergency and other alerts, I do not perceive sound information. This creates a situation of uncertainty: I am deprived of the opportunity to respond to staff teams in a timely manner, which may be mistaken by the administration as a deliberate disobedience to the requirements of the institution’s regime.”.

Here it turns out: some deaf people have total isolation and violation of their basic rights, while others have mobile phones and a slave to commit new crimes. And the evil irony is that just referring to such cases as Mishchikhin (allowed, of course, through the fault of the employees), the FSIN postpones the solution to the problem of the lack of translators and access of the deaf to communicate with their relatives.