Russian prison administration sends journalist Remzi Bekirov to solitary confinement for a morning prayer

Citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov has been placed in solitary confinement (SHIZO) for five days in the Khakassia prison No. 33 (Russian Federation), reports the civil society initiative Crimean Solidarity, citing the journalist’s lawyer Edem Semedlyaev.

The journalist’s wife Khalide Bekirova says that she has not received letters from her husband in a while.

“I started having troubling thoughts: was he sent to SHIZO? Why isn't he writing letters?” said Khalide Bekirova.

Remzi Bekirov. Photo by Crimean Solidarity

The lawyer learned about Bekirov's detention in solitary confinement during a court hearing on January 20. According to Bekirov, the colony administration placed him and five other Muslims in solitary confinement for performing morning prayers.

As noted by Crimean Solidarity, in the six months of his imprisonment, the journalist had already been sent to solitary confinement seven times for arbitrary reasons such as praying at night or on a towel, not greeting a prison employee, not wearing a cap. He was also placed under enhanced surveillance for two months.

The journalist was not allowed to a phone call to his family. During a visit in December 2024, he said that he had lost 15 kilograms due to refusing to eat pork. Moreover, the prison prohibits going to bed during the day, and the guards "try to morally suppress" the prisoner.

Who is Remzi Bekirov

In August 2024, Remzi Bekirov was moved from the pre-trial detention center in Krasnoyarsk (Russia) to penal colony No. 33 in Abakan (the capital of the Republic of Khakassia).

On August 10, 2024, his lawyer Emil Kurbedinov reported that citizen journalist Remzi Bekirov, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison, is under pressure from the administration of the prison No. 33 in Abakan, Republic of Khakassia (RF).

Remzi Bekirov is a Crimean Tatar citizen journalist with "Crimean Solidarity". Detained in occupied Crimea during searches in the homes of Crimean Tatar activists on March 27, 2019. Bekirov livestreamed searches and trials in politically motivated cases and reported on the persecution of Crimean Tatars. Sentenced to 19 years in prison for alleged terrorism and attempted overthrow of government by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) in 2020.

Remzi Bekirov is on the list of journalists in Russian detention by the Institute of Mass Information.

In late October 2024, it was reported that Remzi Bekirov had been assigned strict detention regime in the Abakan prison No. 33 (Khakassia Republic).

It was reported in December 2024 that Remzi Bekirov lost 15 kilograms of weight in the Russian prison.