Five Uzbek inmates sentenced after tunnel escape from Russian prison

A court in Lipetsk, Russia, handed down sentences in October 2024 to six inmates who dug a 30-meter tunnel and successfully escaped from a penal colony.

Photo: gorod48.ru

The escapees were found guilty under Article 313 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Escape from a detention facility by a group of individuals”) and were sentenced to terms ranging from 4.5 to 12.5 years in prison.

According to the court’s ruling, the inmates serving their sentences at Penal Colony No. 2 in Lipetsk used pipes, shovels, and fragments of cutting discs over a two-month period to dig the tunnel. The tunnel, which stretched more than 30 meters, passed beneath the colony’s fence. On October 25, 2024, the six prisoners – five citizens of Uzbekistan and one of Tajikistan – escaped through the tunnel.

Five of them were quickly apprehended, while the sixth was found on November 6 in the Tambov region.