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.
Miftakhov refused to plead guilty. On 5 September 2023 the court arrested him for two months, since the new criminal investigation has been opened. You can help the family pay for a lowyer. From abroad: paypal ABC-Moscow is abc-msk@riseup.net (write in the message “for Miftakhov”). From Russia: 5469 3800 5929 3380, Sberbank, Elena Gorban
Background
Azat Miftakhov was arrested on 1 February 2019, after law enforcement officers searched his student’s dorm room, and accused of building an “explosive device” that had been found a year earlier in a city near Moscow, Balashikha. He subsequently claimed that, during interrogation, he was tortured by the police. The prosecution authorities twice ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Miftakhov so he was released from detention on 7 February 2019.
The same day, he was arrested again and charged with attacking the ruling political party’s office in Moscow. On the night of 31 January 2018, unidentified persons had broken a window at United Russia’s office on Onezhskaya Street, Moscow, and threw inside a smoke grenade. On 18 January 2021, the court found Miftakhov guilty of hooliganism and sentenced him to six years in a penal colony.
More information:
https://caseazatmiftakhov.org/ (eng),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azat_Miftakhov (eng),
https://t.me/freeazat (Russian)