On October 1, the Sol-Iletsk District Court of the Orenburg Region will hear the administrative claims of former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov against the administration of the Black Dolphin prison colony, where he is serving a life sentence. Arashukov is demanding that the decision to place him in solitary confinement be declared unlawful.

The disciplinary action was based on the prisoner's refusal to report to work. Arashukov insists that he was unable to work for a valid reason: according to him, the temperature in his work cell was too high, which caused his health to deteriorate.
The defendants in the lawsuits are the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, the Orenburg Region branch of the service, Correctional Colony No. 6, and the prison warden. The former senator is demanding that the sanctions be overturned and their consequences rectified.

After being placed in solitary confinement, Arashukov went on a hunger strike that lasted ten days. He subsequently ended it.

Arashukov has been serving a life sentence since December 2022, when the Moscow City Court sentenced him and his father, Raul Arashukov, to life imprisonment. Appeals and cassation upheld the sentence. Raul Arashukov died in prison in 2023.

This is not the former senator's first conflict with the Black Dolphin administration. In 2024, a new criminal case was opened against him, accusing him of attempting to transfer three million rubles to prison staff in exchange for better conditions. In January, the court found Arashukov guilty of attempting to bribe an FSIN officer, fined him 120 million rubles, and sentenced him to an additional ten years in prison.

In the spring, Arashukov's relatives attempted to have him transferred from the Orenburg Region to a prison colony in Mordovia, but were denied. The defense announced its intention to appeal this decision.

The court heard another lawsuit filed by Arashukov at the end of April. At that time, the former senator demanded 100,000 rubles in compensation for food that he was not given. The claim was denied: during the trial, it was discovered that the necessary goods were not available in the prison store.

In August, Arashukov also appealed to the State Duma and the government with a proposal to increase the number of visits with children for prisoners serving life sentences.