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At Correctional Colony No. 2 in Salavat, a city in the Republic of Bashkortostan, taekwondo coach Teymur Abdullayev, who was sentenced to 16 and a half years on charges related to Hizb ut-Tahrir, has once again been sent to a punishment cell. This was reported by “Crimean Solidarity.”
“A letter arrived on 13 August,” said his wife, Alime Abdullayeva, who is from Crimea. “He wrote that on the 1st he was released from the punishment cell, but on the 6th he was sent back there. He was just put back in—without explanation. Now they’re threatening him with EPKT. When he first arrived at the colony, there were similar threats, and now they’re happening again. EPKT is the harshest. With his health condition, this should not be allowed.”
“Crimean Solidarity” notes that over more than five years in the colony, Abdullayev has spent roughly 1,021 days in the punishment cell. He has been regularly placed there since March 2020. After serving a term in the punishment cell, the person convicted faces strict detention conditions.
In most cases, Abdullayev was not told the reasons for his placement in the punishment cell. The last time a reason was given, it was for failing to greet the colony chief during prayers.
“My youngest son hasn’t been in a unit in the camp for even a single day; he’s spent almost five years in the cells of punishment isolators and in SUS—these are covered, cold cells; he’s on the verge of life and death,” said the convicted man’s mother, Dilyara Abdullayeva, in December 2024.
The authorities are not allowing the Crimean to call his family via the “Zonatelecom” service. He communicates with them only through letters. In July, for the first time in nine years, he was able to see his daughter, who was just three months old when he was detained.
While in detention, he has developed health problems. He suffers from high blood pressure, poor eyesight, kidney issues, headaches, and pain in his eyes and teeth. He has also reported regular stomach and liver pain, and after an ear infection he lost hearing in one ear.
Abdullayev and his brother Uzeir were arrested in October 2016. Alongside them, three more people were taken into custody. In June 2019, accused of organising or participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation (Art. 205.5 parts 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code), they were sentenced to terms ranging from 12 to 17 years. Their sentences were later reduced by six months.
On 26 August Teymur Abdullayev was forced to fake a serious offence, he told his mother through his lawyer.
On 20 August, IK-2 staff members Koledov, Ryakhmasov and Pereveznikov summoned Abdullayev to an office where review commissions for punishment cell placements are held. Pereveznikov entered the isolator in civilian clothes as he was officially on leave. They told the prisoner that “a request had come from the FSIN management regarding him”: to send the Muslim to the EPKT at Colony No. 16 in Salavat for several months.
To do this, they asked him to simulate a “serious offence,” threatening to make his conditions unbearable and, in any case, to eventually force him to commit violations that would get him sent to the EPKT, but this time with “recommendations for re-education.” Abdullayev explained that “recommendations for re-education” mean torture in the form of abuse. He added that even without such “recommendations,” prisoners transferred to EPKT are badly beaten during transport.
The political prisoner was told that first he would be formally transferred to the PKT at IK-2, and then immediately sent to the EPKT at Colony No. 16. However, the PKT on the territory of IK-2 is closed, and it is unclear exactly where Abdullayev was supposed to be placed.
When the Crimean Tatar was made the proposal, he replied that he would think about it, but he was told there was “no time to think” and that he should take off his uniform, lie on the floor, and when they entered his cell and made a remark, he should ignore them. When Abdullayev and his cellmate did this, the staff said the offence did not count as “serious” and insisted he remove his uniform on camera. The Crimean Tatar refused, but his cellmate agreed as he only had five months left to serve.
Two days later, a prosecutor supervising correctional facilities came to the area where the punishment cell is located, but he was prevented from seeing the prisoners who had asked to see him.
Abdullayev does not know for sure whether there was actually a “request” regarding him, but he believes the colony staff are simply looking to fill empty spots in the EPKT.
The political prisoner is asking the public to urgently submit complaints to the Central Office of the Prosecutor’s Office for the oversight of correctional facilities, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the Human Rights Commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation, and the Central Office of the FSIN.
Abdullayev stated that video recordings from security cameras at the checkpoint in IK-2 and in the punishment cell block itself serve as evidence of the pressure on him. “If the videos disappear, that will be proof of evidence being concealed,” he said.