The FSB conducted searches in the case of the Moscow network cell and began an investigation against Azat Miftakhov

The FSB opened a criminal case against the Moscow cell of the Network, which investigators call a terrorist community, and conducted searches of Moscow anarchists. Convicted mathematician Azat Miftakhov is being checked for involvement in the cell, they write and.

TASS"Mediazona" Miftakhov's lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina told "Mediazona" that on the morning of February 27, security forces conducted searches of people "who are considered anarchists by conviction." “We are talking specifically about the presence of an alleged Moscow cell [of the “Network”] and somehow this has something to do with Azat, although I believe that Azat has nothing to do with this,” the defender emphasized in a conversation with the publication.

Mathematician and anarchist Miftakhov, in the case of a broken window in the United Russia office, is now serving his sentence in IK-17, Kirov region. Miftakhov's support group wrote that he should be released in September of this year.

On February 16, the convicted activist and human rights activist reported on a likely investigation of Miftakhov for involvement in the “Network” and the continuation of the criminal case against other people. Then they reported that several convicted defendants in the case could testify against the mathematician.

associates of Ivan Astashin Thus, the relatives of the defendants in the “Network” case told Astashin that they received a message from Pchelintsev’s lawyer Oksana Markeeva: at the client’s request, she conveyed that “Pchelintsev is now in Lefortovo , is testifying against Azat and asks him to agree with them, giving reasons for this the fact that the case will be fabricated anyway, and this way he will help Azat get less money in the new case.” According to Astashin, Markeeva said that Ilya Shakursky, another person involved in the “Network” case from Penza, allegedly gives evidence against Miftakhov. The human rights activist denied this information: according to him, during the visit of the security forces, Shakursky said that he knew about the convicted mathematician only from media publications. This is also what the Rupression project is about.

wrote At the same time, Astashin recalled that earlier a defendant in the “Network” case from St. Petersburg, Igor Shishkin, who had already been released, testified against Miftakhov. According to the human rights activist, this happened after the verdict, when Shishkin was in prison. In 2021, the young man was released, left Russia and spoke about torture.

Markeeva’s lawyer said in an interview with SOTA that she “never proposed, either on her own initiative or on the initiative of anyone, including Pchelintsev,” to admit Miftakhov’s guilt and agree with any accusation.

stated “In general, I never personally or through anyone brought to Azat Miftakhov any requests, wishes, or demands for any actions on his part,” the lawyer added.

On February 27, TASS reported that “some of the previously convicted defendants in the Network case were transferred to Moscow to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, they gave confessions.”

The person involved in the “Network” case, Igor Shishkin, told the telegram channel “NeMoskva Says” that he gave evidence against Azat Miftakhov under pressure from FSB officers, therefore it does not correspond to reality.

On February 28 he said: “I testified as a secret witness when I was already in the colony. Naturally, under pressure on me and my loved ones. He testified that he met [with Miftakhov] at an event in the Moscow region, where there were Network cells. But he emphasized that the guys from Moscow were not part of the Network. Immediately after leaving the Russian Federation, he reported all the information to Azat’s defense. I’m ready to refute this testimony at any time, since I gave it under pressure,” Shishkin told the project.

• A criminal case against the “terrorist community Network” was opened in October 2017. According to the FSB, 11 young people in Penza and St. Petersburg organized the terrorist community “Network” and were planning to overthrow the government.

The defendants in the case, including Shakursky, Pchelintsev, Chernov and Sagynbaev, alleged psychological pressure, electric shock, beatings and planted weapons. Some of them retracted the confessions they gave in the first days after their arrest. In 2020, the defendants in the case were sentenced to terms ranging from 3.5 to 18 years in prison.

2019 Penza St. Petersburg - Azat Miftakhov to five years and nine months in prison: according to investigators, he and three other defendants in the case broke a window in the United Russia office and threw a smoke bomb there. The remaining convicts received suspended sentences. sentenced