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. Accordint 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.
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