To: Zykov A. N.
Director,
Correctional Colony 17, Omutninsk
Director Zykov:
We, members of the Azat Miftakhov Committee, are writing to you to express concern about the safety and well being of Miftakhov, Azat Fanisovich (born 1993), who is currently one of the prisoners at Correctional Colony 17.
The Azat Miftakhov Committee is an international human rights group, formed in 2020 by a number of mathematicians around the world in order to support Azat Miftakhov. Azat, who at the time of his arrest in 2019 was a PhD student in Mathematics at the Moscow State University, was convicted in January 2021 in what we view to have been an unjust, unfair and politically motivated trial. We have been persistently calling for Azat’s release, and numerous mathematicians and professional mathematical societies around the world have expressed support for Azat as well.
As we understand it, Azat is scheduled to be released on parole in early September 2023. Recently we have heard several concerning reports about increasingly severe and frequent punishments that Azat received at the Correctional Colony 17 in the month of July. Apparently, Azat received solitary confinement twice, first for three days and then for seven days. Moreover, he has now been classified as a “malicious violator” of the colony regime, and will be transferred to a “strict condition” detention until his scheduled release in September. As we were told, his remaining phone calls and meetings with his family have been canceled as a part of this “strict condition” detention.
We urge you to respect Azat Miftakhov’s rights and to ensure his humane and respectful treatment while he is at the Correctional Colony 17. We are particularly worried whether Azat is receiving all the necessary medical care at the colony. Azat is suffering from severe back pain, for which a doctor recommended that he wears a medical brace; however, Azat has not been able to get such a brace at the colony. It appears that Azat received the second solitary confinement punishment in July because, in order to alleviate the back pain, he lay down on a bench in his cell during the day while serving the first solitary confinement period. We urge you to reconsider Azat’s classification as a “malicious violator” and to make sure that he receives all the necessary medical care.
The international mathematical community is eagerly looking forward to Azat Miftakhov’s release, so that he can resume his mathematical studies and research.
Sincerely,
Ahmed Abbes, mathematician, Director of research at CNRS, Paris
Alexandre Borovik, Professor Emeritus (retired), University of Manchester, UK
Michel Broué, Professor emeritus of mathematics at the University Paris City
Fabien Durand, President of the French Mathematical Society, Professor of mathematics, Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Ivar Ekeland, FRSC, Professor emeritus of mathematics and former President, University of Paris-Dauphine
Michael Harris, Professor of mathematics, Columbia University
Ilya Kapovich, Professor of mathematics, Hunter College of CUNY, past Chair, Committee on the Human Rights of Mathematicians, American Mathematical Society
Raphaël Rouquier, Professor of mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles
The case of Azat Miftakhov 