Prison reports, prison term. Ural human rights defender faces “treason” case after detailing prison system abuses

A court in Yekaterinburg has ordered the Ural human rights defender Alexei Sokolov held in pre-trial detention on a charge of treason (Article 275 of Russia’s Criminal code), a Mediazona correspondent reported from the courtroom. Sokolov said the allegation centres on his work documenting torture and other human rights violations in Russia’s prison system, which investigators claim he relayed, “including to foreign organisations”, and therefore poses a “threat to state security”.

The hearing at the Verkh-Isetsky District Court was held behind closed doors, with members of the public and journalists allowed into the courtroom only for the judge to read out her decision.

Moments before Judge Anastasia Kuznetsova entered, Sokolov briefly described what the prosecution says he did: he spoke about torture and rights violations in the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN in Russian), and shared that information with outside groups. Sokolov insisted he had been collecting material for the Committee Against Torture in order to file formal complaints inside Russia.

Investigators searched Sokolov’s home on December 16 in a separate case linked to alleged involvement with an “undesirable organisation”, a designation used by the Russian authorities to outlaw foreign and domestic organisations and criminalise any participation and affiliation. Only now has it emerged that he is also being prosecuted for treason, an even harsher charge.

On the same day, security officers also carried out searches at the homes of Roman Kachanov and Larisa Zakharova, members of the “Urals Human Rights Defenders” project. On December 17, a Yekaterinburg court sent both to a pre-trial detention centre on suspicion of “organising the activities of an undesirable organisation”. Both detention hearings were held behind closed doors, and it remains unclear which organisation the investigators consider “undesirable”.

Kachanov and Zakharova are prohibited from discussing the accusations and didn’t say anything while being escorted through the courthouse corridors.

All three suspects are known in the region for defending prisoners’ rights and monitoring conditions in the FSIN system. The pro-war Telegram channel UralLive, run by supporters of the propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, has claimed the case may be linked to grants from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, both of which Russia has labelled “undesirable”.

In November, a pro-war blogger, Ekaterina Ipatova, filed a complaint with Russia’s Investigative Committee alleging that Sokolov, Zakharova and Kachanov had received “no less than 70,000 euros” from those organisations in order to “influence” Russia’s penal system.

Sokolov is also already on trial in a separate case over the “repeat display of extremist symbols”, after posts on the “Urals Human Rights Defenders” Telegram channel featured the Facebook logo—an “extremist” organisation in the Russian legal system since 2022. Sokolov says the links appeared only after law enforcement officers seized his phone during his detention and edited older messages.

Case materials include numerous internal reports on covert activity from 2023 and 2024 compiled by officers from the Sverdlovsk region branch of the prison service. From early July 2024 until January 4, 2025, Sokolov was held in pre-trial detention in that case.