On 10 April, the Central District Military Court at Yekaterinburg sentenced Roman Nasryev and Aleksey Nuriev, who live in Bakal in the southern Urals, each to 19 years imprisonment. They will serve four years in prison and the remaining 15 years in a strict regime penal colony.
Roman and Aleksey received this harsh punishment for firebombing an administrative building that houses a military registration office.
On 11 October 2022 Roman and Aleksey tried to firebomb the military registration office, since there is no fully-fledged military commissariat in Bakal. The act was symbolic, carried out in response to military mobilisation, and to indicate their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. As a result of the firebombing, no-one was injured and there was minimal impact on the building. A female security guard was able to put out the fire with a blanket and five litres of water. A window, and some linoleum, were damaged.
Roman and Aleksey were arrested a few hours later. At first, they were charged with deliberate destruction of property by means of arson (Article 167 of the Russian Federal Criminal Code). But after the Federal Security Service (FSB) intervened, the much more serious charge of “committing a terrorist act” (Article 205) was brought.
Some time later, Nasryev and Nuriev were also accused of “undergoing training in order to carry out terrorist activities” (Article 205.3). The evidence of this “training” was a video, found on their phones, which showed them making Molotov cocktails and throwing them on deserted waste ground.
In court, Nasryev did not deny involvement in the firebombing, but rejected the accusation of “terrorism”, and pointed out that he had not undergone any “training in order to carry out terrorist activities”. He drew the court’s attention to the fact that anyone can throw a bottle with flammable liquid in it: no specialist knowledge is required. Nuriev, too, refused to admit to being guilty of “terrorism”.
On 14 July, the human rights defence initiative, “Support Political Prisoners”, organised by Memorial under internationally-agreed criteria, recognised Roman Nasryev and Aleksey Nuriev as political prisoners.
Before his arrest, Aleksey worked for the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as a section chief in the fire and rescue service. Roman worked as a driver for an outsourced security firm. Both friends played in the rock band Room 32. Aleksey wrote poetry; Roman’s great enjoyment was music and, as a hobby, he learned to play a large number of different instruments. Both of them played sports. Roman enjoyed fixing old cars, and fishing.
Lawyers for Roman and Aleksey have lodged an appeal against their conviction, but the case has so far not been sent on to the court of appeal, and no date has been set for it to be reviewed. Until the sentence enters into legal force, Nasryev and Nuriev will be detained at the PFRSI (a premises, functioning as a pre-trial detention centre) IK-2 in Yekaterinburg. You can write letters to them there.
HOW TO HELP
Address for letters and parcels:
620019, г. Екатеринбург, ул. Малышева, 2б, ИК-2, ПФРСИ,
Насрыев Роман Раифович 1995 г.р.
It is possible to send letters through the electronic service «Зонателеком».
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