Russia Continues Crackdown Against Anarchists

Published: Mar 31, 2021 Reading time: 5 minutes
Russia Continues Crackdown Against Anarchists
© Foto: Source: Free Azat Campaign

Azat Miftakhov, a 27-year old mathematician and anarchist, was sentenced to six years in prison earlier this year, following a sham trial. His conviction marks yet another disturbing case of an activist punished for his political views.

Miftakhov, hailing from Russia’s Tatarstan region, is a talented mathematician who started his PhD studies at Moscow State University in 2015. In his early twenties, he joined an anarchist movement.

The activist’s ordeal started on February 1, 2019, when his place was searched, he was detained and sent to a temporary detention facility on alleged charges of manufacturing explosives. The case was opened after an improvised explosive device had been found in Balashikha, a city near Moscow. Miftakhov did not admit to any wrongdoing. It wasn’t until the next day, February 2, 2019, that official charges were pressed against him. However, the court found no evidence to keep Miftakhov in custody; he was initially released on February 7, 2019 without any formal accusations.

On the same day, however, just as Miftakhov was leaving the detention facility, he was taken by men in plain clothes and transported to another facility, where he was told that he was now being detained on yet another charge - hooliganism. During those first days behind bars, Miftakhov said he was mistreated and tortured.

The alleged crime he was accused of — breaking a window in the office of United Russia and throwing a smoke grenade inside — had taken place a year before, on January 13, 2018. There was no proof though that Miftkahov was the one who committed it — the “confidential witness'' who reported the incident and accused Azat was unable to describe Miftkahov’s facial features or his attire — he only pointed out his “expressive eyebrows". It also took a whole year for the “witness” to come forward. Answering a question as to why he did not do it right away, he said his phone was “out of battery.” 

The only other “evidence” against Miftakhov was a ticket to Belarus that he had purportedly bought on February 11, 2019. On this day, however, Miftakhov was kept in a temporary detention facility without Internet access and he could not possibly access any sites.

The purchased ticket was deemed to be sufficient grounds for Miftakhov’s subsequent detention. The court continued to extend Miftakhov’s sentence throughout 2019 and 2020, despite the fact that the only evidence has been the words of a “confidential witness” and a ticket to Belarus in his name.

On January 18, 2021, Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to six years in prison, found guilty of hooliganism and involvement in an arson attack on the ruling United Russia’s party’s office in Moscow in 2018.

With the news that the prosecutor demanded six years in jail for the activist based on unsubstantiated claims, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences issued a public appeal in January, signed by 54 professors and academics, in which they urged the court to release the student. Their letter, along with the calls for freedom from local rights groups, was duly ignored.

On January 18, 2021, Azat Miftakhov was sentenced to six years in prison, found guilty of hooliganism and involvement in an arson attack on the ruling United Russia’s party’s office in Moscow in 2018.

He is recognized as a political prisoner by Russia’s leading human-rights NGO, Memorial.

Urged by Miftakhov’s family, scientists are considering boycotting the upcoming International Congress of Mathematicians, scheduled to take place in 2022 in St. Petersburg, if the activist is to remain in prison.

The president of the French Mathematical Society, together with a number of signatories, said the international mathematical community was “appalled and horrified by the verdict.”

Fellow academics from around the world had earlier issued an open petition in support of Miftakhov. Signed by some 3000 mathematicians from 15 countries, the letter demanded the release of the activist. The signatories included professors of Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), members of the American Mathematical Society and the US National Academy of Sciences. 

Urged by Miftakhov’s family, scientists are considering boycotting the upcoming International Congress of Mathematicians, scheduled to take place in 2022 in St. Petersburg, if the activist is to remain in prison.

Since 2017, 11 young anarchists and antifascists from Petersburg and Penza have been persecuted by State Security Services in Russia.

Meanwhile, Azat Miftakhov is not the first anarchist who has faced criminal charges in retaliation for his views.

In 2018, following an explosion at the FSB headquarters in Arkhangelsk by a 17-year old who identified as an anarchist, Russian security services launched a large-scale crackdown against the community of far-left-wing activists, not quite differentiating between peaceful and violent activism. As a result, a number of innocent anarchists were rounded up, harassed and persecuted solely for their affiliation with a political ideology now seen by Russian authorities as a threat to the state.

Since 2017, 11 young anarchists and antifascists from Petersburg and Penza have been persecuted by State Security Services in Russia. In 2020, six of them were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges of participation in a “terrorist group that planned to overthrow the government”. These charges were brought to them as a part of the so-called “Network” case. The verdicts were based on the testimonies that were received under alleged torture and pressure on their relatives. 

Autor: PIN

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