Russian Lawyers: Banned Movement Participant Vanishes from Tbilisi, Suspected in Russian Custody
According to the Russian group of lawyers and human rights defenders known as Pervy Otdel (First Department), Rafail Shepelev, a participant in the ultra-leftist and anarchist “Artpodgotovka”(Artillery/art – preparation) movement banned in Russia, disappeared in Tbilisi on October 12. According to the same source, he may be in custody in Russia, facing charges related to terrorism.
Reportedly, Rafaíl Shepelev is a Russian activist with a history of involvement in protest movements in support of figures such as Alexei Navalny, for which he has been arrested several times in Russia. According to Meduza, in September 2021, the FSB placed Artpodgotovka on the list of terrorist organizations.
Shepelev’s personal belongings were reportedly left at the house on Mtatsminda Street in Tbilisi. Citing his associates, Pervy Otdel said Shepelev had been living in Georgia since September 2021 and had no plans to return to Russia.
“On October 13, the day after the disappearance, the Vladikavkaz District Court found the activist guilty of “petty hooliganism,” Pervy Otdel reported, adding that according to their information, “as a punishment, the man was placed under administrative arrest, and after his release, he was placed in a pre-trial detention center (SIZO) on charges of a crime of a terrorist nature.”
Pervy Otdel says that “placing people under administrative arrest on fabricated pretexts before their detention on criminal charges is a common practice”.
According to Pervy Otdel, a similar incident occurred in Kyrgyzstan this October, when a Russian activist was abducted and later found in a Moscow pretrial detention center.
Georgian MIA Statement
On November 9, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia stated that in the Ministry’s Shida Kartli Police Department, an investigation is in progress under the Article 143 of the Criminal Code regarding the possible disappearance of a citizen of the Russian Federation, R.S.
“As soon as the notification was received, within the framework of the search case established in the Tbilisi Police Department, appropriate measures were taken by the law enforcement officers” MIA said, adding that “interviews were conducted with all the persons who might have any kind of information regarding the mentioned issue.”
According to the police, the records of the video surveillance cameras were examined, which proves that on October 12, the citizen of the Russian Federation left his residence for Shida Kartli, namely the city of Gori, from where he took a taxi to the village of Kirbali.
“According to the information provided by the interviewed persons, including the taxi driver and local residents, after getting out of the car, the mentioned person voluntarily crossed the occupation line and headed into the depth of the occupied territory,” the MIA said.
UPDATE: On December 5, Pervy Otdel announced on its Telegram channel that Shepelev has been found found in the Russian Federal Penitentiary Institution SIZO-3 (“Nizhny Tagil”) of the State Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk region.
“They [Russian law enforcement] tricked him out of Tbilisi to the Tskhinvali region, detained him there, took him to Vladikavkaz, put him under administrative arrest, during which he was charged in a criminal case and a measure of restraint was applied,” Pervy Otdel wrote, adding that then Shepelev was sent in the Nizhny Tagil pre-trial detention center.
Note: This news was updated on 5 December at 15:12 to reflect information about Shepelev’s location at SIZO-3 in Russia.
Also Read:
- 02/06/2023 – Russian Anti-Putin Publicist Denied Entry to Georgia
- 30/05/2017 – Amnesty: Azerbaijani Journalist ‘Abducted’ from Georgia at Risk of Torture
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
