Five defendants in the 'Baymak case' have been sentenced to up to 5.5 years in prison.

The Leninsky District Court of Izhevsk has sentenced five defendants in the criminal case over the protests in Bashkortostan to terms ranging from 4.5 to 5.5 years in a general regime penal colony. This was reported by the lawyer of one of the defendants.

Among those convicted are Insaf Islamov and Sagit Yulmukhametov. They, along with two other people, were sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in a general regime colony. Another defendant was given 5 years and 6 months in a colony. Taking into account the time spent in a pre-trial detention centre, they have already served 2.5 years of their sentences.

All five were found guilty under the article on participation in mass riots (Part 2, Article 212 of the Russian Criminal Code). In addition, four of them were found guilty under the article on using violence against police officers (Part 1, Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code). The person who received a 5.5-year sentence was also charged with using violence dangerous to the health of a police officer (Part 2, Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Insaf Islamov was detained in Apatity a few weeks after the mass protests in Bashkortostan. He was sent to a pre-trial detention centre. After some time, he was transferred from Murmansk region, where he had been working and living, to a detention centre in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan. After that, he and four others were taken to Izhevsk (a city in the Ural region) for the substantive hearing of their case.

• In January 2024, Bashkir activist and former leader of the Bashkort movement Fail Alsynov was sentenced to four years in a colony for his speech at a public meeting. Before the verdict and on the day it was pronounced, there were three major rallies in support of Alsynov: on 15 and 17 January in Baymak (a city in Bashkortostan), and on 19 January in Ufa.
• After these rallies, mass detentions began. At first, these were administrative cases, but then law enforcement opened a criminal case on mass rioting. More than 80 people became defendants in this case. Some of them reported violence. One of the defendants, Rifat Dautov, died after being detained—his family were not told the cause of his death. Another protest participant, Minniyar Bayguzkarov, took his own life. OVD-Info is supporting 20 defendants in the case and is raising funds for them.