The BEAR serving life in jail: Animal has already served 15 years in Kazakh prison filled with dangerous criminals after two attacks on people at a campsite
- Female bear has been jailed for life in a ‘strict regime’ prison in Kazakhstan
- Katya the bear was found guilty of attacking two people at a campsite in 2004
- She is the only female and life prisoner – and has a swimming pool in her cell
A female brown bear is serving life in prison alongside dangerous criminals for attacking two people in Kazakhstan.
Ekaterina – or Katya – was imprisoned in a ‘strict regime’ penal colony in Kostanay 15 years ago.
She was found guilty of two separate attacks on people causing bodily harm at a camp site where she was previously caged.
The bear is the only female in the jail which holds 730 ‘dangerous’ criminals, including killers whose sentences do not exceed 25 years.
A female brown bear is serving life in prison alongside dangerous criminals for attacking two people in Kazakhstan
She is also the only life prisoner – and the sole inmate boasting a swimming pool in her ‘cell’.
There are few pictures of the jailed bear but the head of the high security colony claims that she has become less threatening as a result of her 15 years behind bars.
‘She is friendly, not aggressive at all,’ explained Aslan Medybayev.
‘Other prisoners visit her. She woke up about a month ago from her annual hibernation. Now she feels good, and runs, jumps.’
The bear is the only female in the jail which holds 730 ‘dangerous’ criminals, including killers whose sentences do not exceed 25 years
Unlike other inmates, Katya is not allowed conjugal visits.
The jail’s deputy head of educational work Azamat Gapbasov said: ‘Sadly we cannot take a male bear to her.
‘If only we could make artificial insemination….’
The bleak Kostanay penal outpost is 435 miles north west of Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-sultan, formerly Astana, close to the country’s border with Russia.
The bear has become the jail’s symbol and a statue was even erected to her.
Katya’s attacked two people in 2004 in separate incidents at the campsite called Belaya Yurta where she was caged after being abandoned by a circus trainer as a cub.
An 11-year-old boy, named Nursultan Kh, staying at the camp for a kickboxing contest tried to feed the beast and she grabbed his leg.
He suffered serious wounds and ‘traumatic shock’.
He later told journalists: ‘Everything happened suddenly… I threw food to him, and he, through the cage, grabbed my leg. I don’t remember anything else from that moment.’
Soon afterwards the bear attacked a man named as Viktor O, then 28, who was mauled by the predator.
The bear has become the jail’s symbol and a statue (pictured) was even erected to her
The bear is looked after by inmates under supervision and is reportedly ‘calm’ and not aggressive
Katya was imprisoned in a ‘strict regime’ penal colony in Kostanay (pictured) 15 years ago
The man – reportedly drunk – tried to shake hands with the bear, ignoring warning signs.
Fearing more attacks, Katya was sentenced to prison since there was no zoo in the region to take the bear, then seven years old.
She is looked after by inmates under supervision.
One prisoner Igor Tarakanov, 43, said: ‘She is calm, not aggressive.
‘She adores sweet things that prisoners give her – sweets, biscuits, apples.
‘Of course, communicating with an animal brightens my time here, makes it not so painful.’