An anarchist who suffered from torture by security forces received asylum in Belgium

Anarchist Daniil Galkin, who left Russia due to persecution, received political asylum in Belgium. This was reported by the telegram channel of the People's Self-Defense movement.

In the early morning of February 1, 2019, they came to Galkin’s home with a search, after which he was detained. That same morning, security forces detained several more Moscow anarchists and left-wing activists, including Azat Miftakhov , who at that moment was trying to be charged with manufacturing explosives.

As Galkin himself said, after his arrest, he was beaten and tortured with a stun gun for several hours, trying to extract testimony against Miftakhov and, under the threat of new torture, force him to tell a certain version of events on camera to television journalists.

On the same day, all the detainees, except Miftakhov, were released without charges, after which Galkin spoke in detail about the torture and fled the country, fearing further persecution. Later, Miftakhov and several other anarchists, including those who were searched in February, became involved in the case of a broken window in the United Russia office. They were charged under the article of hooliganism committed based on political hatred by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code).

• Azat Miftakhov, for whom they tried to obtain testimony from other detainees, was also tortured and tried to accuse him of manufacturing explosives and attempting a terrorist attack. On February 7, 2019, Miftakhov was released from the pre-trial detention center, but on the same day he was detained again - this time in the case of a broken window in the United Russia office. Since then, Miftakhov’s arrest has been repeatedly extended; he has been in pre-trial detention for more than a year and a half. In October 2020, after a long break, Miftakhov was again interrogated in the case of manufacturing explosives.