Late last year, opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who had been sentenced to 19 years in prison for a number of trumped-up cases, was sent to a special regime penal colony in the settlement of Kharp in the Far North, one of the most hard-to-reach colonies. This region colonies are famous for its harsh regime and torture of prisoners.
Translation from the site freedomnews.org.uk. Original in Russian here.
~ NinaT
The compilation of music in support of prisoners. In 2022, punks and anti-fascists from Siberia and the Urals were tortured by police to fabricate a case. They are accused of terrorism, but they did not use any violence. Confessions were extracted with torture of electric shocks, strangulation with a bag, beatings and threats of rape with a mop. Antifascists face huge prison sentences
Six anarchists from Russia have been held in pre-trial detention for a year on spurious charges of creating a "terrorist community". According to Russian law, our comrades face a total of 5 to 15 years of imprisonment for the charged articles, and 15 to 30 years of life imprisonment for organizing or leading a "terrorist community". The main proof of guilt is a confession given under torture.
The last day of the fundraising campaign for Tyumen case is January 1st. Unless goal is reached, none of the money is delivered for our comrades.
The anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui is accused of causing an explosion, on a railway used to transport military equipment and fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine. The result was the derailment of 19 carriages of a goods train in the Ryazan region. There were no casualties, although the driver’s assistant sustained non-serious injuries. Russian Railways assessed the damage at €300.000. Ruslan has been charged with committing a terrorist act, and possession of explosive material.
Danil is a convinced anti-fascist from Yekaterinburg, a loving husband and devoted friend, the soul of any company. He is one of the best veterinarians in Yekaterinburg, specializing as an orthopedic surgeon. Before his arrest, he worked in two veterinary clinics. Being a leading specialist in veterinary surgery, he constantly attended scientific conferences, improved his qualifications in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and mastered modern technologies in surgery and endoscopy. Danil trained veterinary specialists in Surgut.
Anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui, accused of rail line disruption and drone attack on a military airport in Ryazan Oblast, was transferred from SIZO “Kapotnya” at the outskirts of Moscow to “Matrosskaya Tishina”. As the antiwar human rights initiative “Solidarity zone” writes, Siddiqui himself informed a friend in a letter about the transfer.
New address for letters and parcels:
Recently, the defendants in the «Tyumen case» have received the final version of the charges. According to the support group, in letters to relatives and friends they write that the investigation committee has added two further offenses to the «terrorism» charge:
«the illicit manufacture of explosives as part of an organized criminal group» (part 3 of article 223.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which envisages between fifteen and twenty years of deprivation of liberty
Yura is an antifascist and opponent of authoritarianism from Yekaterinburg, detained on August 31, 2022.
He is engaged in Thai boxing and studies computer technologies of graphic design. Yura is a talented freelance designer, recently he has been doing 3D modeling and drawing models for games and cartoons.
Help the defendants of the "Tyumen case" in their fight for freedom!
Firefund.net calls everyone to support the crowdfunding to pay the lawyers for the defendants in the "Tyumen case". Deadline is 1th of January 2024.
Tomorrow, December 2 at 17.00 in Berlin (Kadterschmiede, RIGAER STRASSE 94) will start a first presentation about Ilya Shakursky. Ilya is a Russian political prisoner, participant of the Network Case, anarchist, anti-fascist and eco-activist. On February 10, 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security facility and also to a fine of 50,000 rubles. The investigation believes that he was the organizer of the “Network terrorist cell”. Ilya pleaded not guilty in court.
Deniz is an anti-fascist from Tyumen and was detained on August 30, 2022, with his friend Kirill Brik. (Kirill Brik signed a pre-trial agreement with the investigation, so the support team does not pay for his lawyer's services).
We share translation of an open letter written by defendant of the "Tyumen case" Danil Chertykov in detention. He talks about the difficulties he had to face in SIZO-1 of Tyumen and compared the penal system to the digestive system. The letter was translated specifically for our website.
Six anarchists from Russia have been held in pre-trial detention for a year on spurious charges of creating a "terrorist community". According to Russian law, our comrades face a total of 5 to 15 years of imprisonment for the charged articles, and 15 to 30 years of life imprisonment for organizing or leading a "terrorist community". The main proof of guilt is a confession given under torture.
Firefund calls everyone to support the crowdfunding to pay the lawyers for the defendants in the "Tyumen case". The guys have been in pre-trial detention for more than a year and they will face trials on the merits of the case. Families and relatives will have to pay for the participation of lawyers in these sessions and they will not be able to cope without help!
Because Kirill Brik, a defendant of the Tyumen case, signed a pre-trial agreement, Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow is no longer supporting him anymore. In some cases we do support prisoners who give testimonies against themselves, but we do not support prisoners that are testifying against others.
On 4 September 2023, former Moscow State University graduate student and political prisoner Azat Miftakhov was released from penal colony. On the same day Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged Miftakhov in a criminal case for «justifying terrorism». According to FSB, Azat discussed with other prisoners the war in Ukraine and the actions of the anarchist Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who caused an explosion in the FSB building and died in 2018.
At the end of each August, anarchists and anti-authoritarian activists from around the world take part in the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners.
We call you to support political prisoners in Russia and Belarus by letters!
Ivan Kudryashov is an anti-war activist who made a street art piece in the center of Tver with the text “Fuck the War.” In September 2022, he was detained by the Federal Security Service. FSB officers planted Molotov cocktails in Ivan’s apartment and tortured the activist in an attempt to pressurize him to confess to preparing the arson of a military enlistment office.
“In our last meeting with Azat Miftakhov it was decided to write about the pressure security forces exert on Azat, previously not brought up by the support group – reports the channel FreeAzat! We were not doing it because at the beginning of his incarceration, we heard about Azat’s unwillingness to disclose this topic – back when it was too sensitive for him. Later in the penal colony, at his suggestion, we wanted to reserve the topic in case the administration uses pressure on prisoners with (political) status."
June 11th is the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. This action day has a long history, it was organized first time 20 years ago in 2004. In the first year, we managed to paint a graffiti to wall of one of the most guarded objects of Moscow,...
Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war...