20 December 2016

Source: HRO.org

Andrei Bubeev, a blogger from Tversk, who is serving a sentence of two years and three months for 'extremism,' has had the conditions in which he serves his sentence made harsher: he will be transferred from a minimum security prison colony to a prison colony of general-regime type.

As Grani.ru has reported, the blogger's wife, Anastasia Bubeeva, has written about this development on her Facebook page.

The decision comes into force on 23rd December 2016. The administration of Remedial Correction Facility No. 3, which is located in the village of Mikhailovskoe in Valdai rural settlement in Bologovsky district, comes under the jurisdiction of Bologovsky town court. However, information relating to this case is not posted on the court’s website.

In their submission, members of the Federal Prison Service declared that political prisoner Andrei Bubeev was a persistent violator of prison rules. As his wife wrote, for nearly a year her husband was held in Tver remand centre No. 1: in that time there were at least sixty-two violations -"he refused to sit down, he refused to stand up and so on.” On several occasions Andrei Bubeev was put into solitary confinement.

In addition, the political prisoner was subjected to close monitoring as a person who has "a bad influence on the others". They said that the reason for this was his conversations with others under investigation, inciting them to read books. "Reading in general, nothing specific!" Bubeev’s wife explained.

For several months the administration of Remedial Correction Facility No. 3 imposed no further punishment on Bubeev, so far as his wife’s posts demonstrate. However, he was then placed in a punishment cell for some unknown reason. The fact that Bubeev was placed in a punishment cell, given the punishments already imposed on the political prisoner in Tver, gave the Prison Service Staff grounds to declare Bubeev a malicious offender and to demand that the conditions in which he is serving his sentence be made harsher.

The verdict on Andrei Bubeev was delivered on 5th May by Judge Aleksei Rodionov in Zavolzhsky district court in Tver. He declared the defendant guilty under Article 280, Section 2 (public incitement to extremism via the Internet), for reposting materials about the annexation of Crimea, and other matters). The total length of his sentence was set, taking into account a previous sentence given in a first prosecution. As an additional punishment the blogger was banned from using the Internet for one year after his release.

The blogger himself pleaded not guilty, stating that he was being prosecuted on account of his beliefs. On 20th July, Tver Region Court upheld the verdict passed on Andrei Bubeev.

Andrei Bubeev is recognized by the Memorial Human Rights Centre (Moscow) as a political prisoner because his criminal prosecution was conducted on the basis of a violation that had not in fact taken place, in violation of his right to fair trial and with disproportionate application of pre-trial detention.

For more information about the case of Andrei Bubeev see the website of: Memorial Human Rights Centre

Translated by Graham Jones