Ilya Baburin sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment

The 2nd Eastern military district court at Novosibirsk has sentenced 24-year-old Ilya Baburin, in the case of an arson of a military recruitment centre that did not happen. Baburin was found guilty under an array of Articles, including “treason against the state” and “attempted organisation of a terrorist act”. The court sentenced Ilya to 25 years’ imprisonment, of which the first five years must be served in prison, and the remaining 20 in a strict regime colony.

Ilya pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. His lawyer, Vasily Dubkov, called on the court to acquit his client.

✊ Solidarity zone provides full support to Ilya Baburin. In the first place, we need to complete the fundraiser to pay his lawyer. You can support this via the link.

На русском

#fundraiser #english

On May 25 we invite you to the 'Solidarity zone' event in Leipzig in support of political prisoners in Russia. It will be held in the framework of the exhibition 'freedom is a verb' by Alla Gutnikova.

The program:
▪️presentation of Solidarity zone
▪️speeches by ex-political prisoners
▪️poetry reading
▪️donation box
▪️prisoners' treats: chifir and koryak cake

Chifir is an exceptionally strong tea, brewed in Soviet and post-Soviet prisons. Koryak is a DIY prison cake made of crushed cookies mixed with condensed milk (vegan).

Solidarity zone is a horizontal organization supporting those arrested for anti-war actions in Russia. We currently support 19 prisoners by finding lawyers, arranging parcels, and sharing information about their cases. We have no permanent source of funding, therefore your donations are of critical importance.

Event will start with a presentation from Solidarity zone, followed by the speeches of ex-political prisoners.

Alla Gutnikova and Natasha Tyshkevich spent a year under house arrest for their journalist work together with two colleagues from DOXA Magazine, Armen Aramyan and Vladimir Metelkin.

Lev Skoryakin was persecuted for an action near the FSB building against political repressions. He fled to Kyrgyzstan, was detained there and put under arrest, then released, but a month later he was kidnapped by the Russian special forces and tortured at the Moscow airport after extradition.

Denis Kozak was persecuted for a comment on social media. He fled to Kazakhstan, but was detained there and spent a year in a Kazakh pre-trial detention center on an extradition request from Russia.

All four of them are on Russia’s federal wanted list. With the help of human rights activists they all managed to escape to Germany and live here with a humanitarian visa and Reiseausweis für Ausländer.

Finally, poets from Russia with a migration background will read their texts. Among them are Alla Gutnikova, Inna Krasnoper, Karina Papp, Nikita Sungatov, Roman Osminkin, and Natasha Tyshkevich.

#english

Mikhail Balabanov sentenced to 4.5 years

The 21 year old from Kazan Mikhail Balabanov has been sentenced in the southern district military court. The young man was found guilty of preparing an "act of terrorism" and was given a custodial sentence of 4 years and 6 months. He will have to spend two of those years in a prison and the rest in a strict regime prison colony. Meanwhile, the court reduced the seriousness of part of the charge against him, not finding a "group of people".

Balabanov was accused of conspiracy with an unspecified agent of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and of preparing an arson attack on a military recruitment office in Nevinnomyssk. Mikhail does not accept the charge against him, and his defence believes that it was FSB agents who corresponded with him. The security forces may have come after the young man after he called the Ukrainian project to help those wishing to surrender, "I want to live" — Mikhail wanted to avoid being sent to the front.

Solidarity zone is supporting Mikhail Balabanov

На русском

#court #sentence #english

❗️ The anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui could face a life sentence

On 30 May, new charges were brought against the anarchist Ruslan Siddiqui, who is accused of acts of sabotage against military infrastructure in Russia. He is now charged with "undertaking training with the intention of perpetrating acts of terrorism" (Article 205.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and of handling explosive substances for an "organised group" (Article 222.1, paragraph 4). He could now face a prison sentence of between 15 years to life. 

Charges were previously brought against Ruslan Siddiqui under Articles covering acts of terrorism and the preparation of explosive substances, which could mean between 12 and 30 years in prison. But the Article on "terrorist training" envisages harsher punishment than the one on acts of terrorism — from 15 years to life. The Article is written in such a way that the security services can use it to add to their leading case. A defendant faces a longer sentence for "training" than for actually doing something. This Article was also used, for example, in the case of Roman Nasryev and Alexei Nuriev, who earlier this year received the record sentence for firebombing a military recruitment centre: 19 years’ imprisonment each.

Ruslan Siddiqui does not consider what he did — blowing up a section of railway underneath a goods train, and attacking a military aerodrome with drones — to be terrorism. He points out that his aim was to damage military infrastructure. He undertook his actions in such a way as to avoid harming anybody. The Article on "terrorist acts", one of the main definitions of which is that they intimidate people, does not apply.

For this reason, we believe that the Article on "terrorist training" also does not apply in Ruslan’s case.

As for handling explosive substances, here the phrase about an "organised group" raises questions. The investigating officers claim that the "organised criminal group" is the Central Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine. But Ruslan insists that he planned and carried out his actions single-handedly. And the investigators themselves found that Siddiqui had prepared explosives at home, using ingredients that can be purchased legally: the most popular ones in Russia — triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and ammonal.

Solidarity zone is now collecting funds to pay for a lawyer for Ruslan Siddiqui. The lawyer is not only a specialist for defence in court, but also the only person who can visit a prisoner in pre-trial detention (SIZO) and be present during questioning by investigating officers. A lawyer is a vital defence against torture and other methods of intimidation. You can support the fundraiser via PayPal or using cryptocurrency.

🪙 PayPal: solidarity_zone@riseup.net (please specify, "for Siddiqui")

🥷 Cryptocurrencies (please inform us by email to solidarity_zone@riseup.net if you send cryptocurrency to support Ruslan Siddiqui)

Monero: 4B1tm6boA5ST6hLdfnPRG2Np9XMHCTiyhE6QaFo46QXp6tZ7Y6nJjE43xBBTwHM84bWwexR8nS4KH36JHujjc1kC8j2Mx5e

Bitcoin: bc1qn404lrshp3q9gd7852d7w85sa09aq0ch28s3v4

USDT (TRC20):
TRcCUHKSMY7iLJPvbDxLc6ZnvAud72jTgj

💌 You can also support Ruslan by writing letters (in Russian only)!

✉️ Address for letters:
Russia, 125130, Москва, ул. Выборгская, д. 20, СИЗО-5
Siddiqui Ruslan Kasemovich, born 1988 (Сидики Руслан Касемович 1988 г. р.)

📧 You can write via PrisonMail.Online service: "Moscow" ⮕ "SIZO-5 Vodnik"

ℹ️ How can I write letters to political prisoners in Russia?

На русском

#fundraiser #writingletters #english

Ivan Astashin, a member of the Solidarity zone, told Radio Svoboda about the work of our initiative, human rights in conditions of war and dictatorship, as well as about the scale of resistance and repression.

As you will see from the material, the scale of repression exceeds our capacity to support political prisoners many times over. Your paid subscription to the Patreon Solidarity zones will help us to better cope with this difficult task.

Thanks for translation The Russian Reader.

На русском

#english