Right now is a very important moment in the campaign for Azat Miftakhov's release. I ask everyone to find a few minutes to participate. I am sure it makes sense and even has some chance of success.
Tomorrow in Ekaterinburg there will be a preliminary court hearing in the new criminal case against mathematician and anarchist Azat Miftakhov. The court will have to set the dates for consideration of the case on the merits. I would like to remind you that on September 4 his sentence in the "case of the broken window of the ER office" ended, but the law enforcers did not want to let him go free, detained him again and sent him to a pre-trial detention centre. Now they want to send him back to prison for several years for allegedly "justifying terrorism" in conversations with a cellmate.
We understand that now only a miracle can prevent the law enforcers from sending Azat back to the colony. But you and I have already done such "miracles" in the past 2023! You and I, with the support of thousands and thousands of like-minded people from different parts of the world, prevented one of the founders of the trade union "Courier" from being sent to the penal colony. Kirill Ukraintsev and left-wing intellectual Boris Kagarlitsky. Behind each of these "miracles" there was a broad public campaign and international solidarity.
We now know that such "miracles" are possible - even in today's conditions. And that means that we must, again and again, in every such situation, do the possible and the impossible. During the five long years that Miftakhov has already spent in prison, we have seen unprecedented waves of solidarity from MSU students and graduates, from mathematicians and the international academic community, from political and trade union activists in various countries. And now we are raising a new wave - a wave of letters to Azat from all over the world.
The Association "Solidarité FreeAzat", consisting of trade union and political activists from Russia and France, calls everyone to write letters to Azat Miftakhov in the pre-trial detention centre and make the fact of these letters visible and public! Our tactical goal is to collect and send 1000 letters to the pre-trial detention centre and accompany this with an information wave demanding the release of the young mathematician.
More than 250 people from several countries have already written their letters. My letter is among them, and I will publish it later. I ask everyone to find time to write at least a short letter to Azat and to spread information about this initiative among your friends and colleagues, to publicise it in the media and social networks.
Form for letters in Russian (https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/e/1FAIpQLScor_GnxeFfdtm5B7CdauT_wx9Qhuv47aknBbe32y8bZVqW5g/viewform)
Form for letters in English and other languages (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQczcvOXPJhp0o9e55JENpI38gBNBr4J-_uC8bu86vc12f7A/viewform)
We aim to send a thousand letters by 15 February, but I ask you not to put it off even for a few days. We will see that some criminal cases are now being dealt with at a rapid pace and we need to hurry.
For speed (and it is important now) to pass through the censorship of the SIZO, letters from foreign languages will be translated into Russian. All letters will be sent through the online service Zonatelecom. This will require expenses - about 800 euros. You can, if you are willing and able, take some part of them on yourself. The requisites are here. (https://t.me/allomacron/932)
Solidarity is stronger than repression!
Free Azat Miftakhov!
#freeAzat