Jailed Russian mathematician says he was tortured with electric shocks and threatened with rape in prison

Azat Miftakhov, a Russian mathematician and anarchist currently behind bars on political charges, has been subjected to electric shock torture, beating, and threats of rape from prison workers and other inmates, he told the independent investigative outlet The Insider.

On 21 April, Miftakhov was transferred to a penal colony in Kharp, a remote village north of the Arctic Circle in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. The day after his arrival, he told The Insider, he was taken to the prison's operations building, where two other inmates ordered him to clean a toilet. After he refused, they knocked him to the ground, bound his arms and legs with tape, and beat the soles of his feet with a wooden hammer until he lost consciousness.

After he regained consciousness, the inmates and a prison worker began threatening him with rape. According to Miftakhov's account to The Insider, they pulled down his clothing and one inmate applied cream to his anus, but the assault stopped short of penetration.

The inmates then carried Miftakhov into the corridor, where the beating resumed. According to his account, one individual struck him approximately 100 times on the head with an open palm, then covered his nose and mouth until he began to suffocate. The group also threatened to submerge him in a sewage drain.

Miftakhov was subsequently taken to the building's second floor, where two officers subjected him to electric shocks, demanding he comply with all orders from the prison administration. He was later returned to the quarantine wing. He said the torture left him with severe pain in his heels, groin, and calves.

Miftakhov was first arrested in 2019 and served a sentence on a disorderly conduct charge related to a 2018 protest. After his release in September 2023, he was immediately rearrested on a new charge of "justifying terrorism", for which he later received a four-year prison sentence.

The prison in Kharp where Miftakhov is now located is the same one where the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was being held at the time of his death.