Ten Muslim prisoners have declared a hunger strike in Yekaterinburg's Pretrial Detention Center No. 5. The protest stems from the fact that political prisoner Ilkin Melikov was sent to solitary confinement on March 12.
According to the prisoners' relatives, the incident occurred after Melikov filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee, accusing pretrial detention center staff of misappropriating items from his package. Following his complaint, he was reportedly threatened and then forcibly removed from his cell and placed in solitary confinement.
Ilkin Melikov is serving a 13-year sentence in the Nizhnevartovsk Jamaat case. He and five other Muslim residents of Nizhnevartovsk (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug) were previously convicted of justifying ISIS and possessing weapons. The "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" project claims the case against them was fabricated. The defendants testified in court that the prohibited items were planted on them, and that they confessed under torture and threats. Furthermore, the prosecution's witnesses were kept secret, and their testimony proved contradictory.
