The Lyubertsy City Court ruled unlawful the refusal to allow mathematician Azat Miftakhov to meet with his wife and defense representative Elena Gorban after reports that he had been tortured in IK-18, the “Polar Owl” penal colony in Kharp. The RusNews project reported the decision.
Earlier, Gorban had been barred from visiting Miftakhov, despite having that right as a member of the defense side. According to people close to the prisoner, the restriction may have been intended to conceal traces of abuse. The formal reason given was that Miftakhov was in quarantine and had not yet been assigned to a unit, but Gorban’s representative told the court that this argument could not apply to a meeting with defense counsel.
On June 23, the Labytnangi City Court also ruled unlawful an investigator’s refusal to take steps to provide Miftakhov with state protection after the torture allegations in the colony.
The abuse in IK-18 became known in early May. Miftakhov said that immediately after being transferred there, he was tortured with electric shocks, beaten on the heels, and threatened with rape. A prosecutor’s review reportedly found no violations in the actions of FSIN staff, while a medical examination conducted two weeks later found no bodily injuries.
Miftakhov refused to sign a statement saying there were no threats against him, stressing that he “does not feel safe [in IK-18] at all.”
He also told the court that he had deliberately violated prison rules so he would be placed in a cell-type facility, which he considered safer. Miftakhov was transferred to Polar Owl to serve a sentence in a case on justifying terrorism: in March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in a strict-regime colony over a conversation with three cellmates in IK-17 in the Kirov region that investigators interpreted as approval of the bombing of an FSB building in Arkhangelsk.
Before that, the mathematician had been serving a sentence in the case of a broken window at a United Russia office. In January 2021, he was sentenced to six years in a general-regime colony on hooliganism charges. After his release in September 2023, Miftakhov was detained the next day in the terrorism-justification case and placed in pretrial detention.