Russian mathematician and political prisoner Azat Miftakhov has been placed in solitary confinement for seven days.
According to a support group for Miftakhov, the decision came after he reported feeling endangered by his current cellmate.
In a letter shared by the group, Miftakhov explained that instead of being transferred to another cell, he was put in solitary confinement.
It remains unclear whether Miftakhov will be returned to the same cell after completing his time in solitary.
His support group says that his cellmate appears to be mentally ill. Miftakhov said that the man had undergone treatment while in pretrial detention but was nonetheless sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and is now being held in a general cell without access to medical care.
Miftakhov is currently serving his sentence in a prison in Dimitrovgrad in the Ulyanovsk region. In March 2023, he was sentenced to four years in prison for "justifying terrorism."
The charges stemmed from comments Miftakhov allegedly made while serving a previous sentence expressing support for Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who carried out a suicide bombing in 2018 at a Federal Security Service building in Arkhangelsk. Only Zhlobitsky was killed in the bombing.
Before this, Miftakhov served five years and nine months on charges of hooliganism for allegedly participating in an attack on a Moscow office of the ruling United Russia party in 2018.
He and his supporters have maintained his innocence, stating that he was tortured during the investigation and coerced into signing a confession, which he retracted.
In 2019, the Russian human rights organization Memorial recognized Miftakhov as a political prisoner.