Rights Advocate Detained in Yekaterinburg Amid Treason Charges for Exposing Prison Abuses

A judge in Yekaterinburg has ordered the pre-trial detention of local human rights activist Alexei Sokolov, who has been arrested on charges of treason, according to the exiled news outlet Mediazona.

Sokolov, a long-time advocate against torture and mistreatment of prisoners in Russia, informed reporters prior to the court’s decision that the authorities accuse him of relaying information about prison abuse to “foreign organizations.”

He claims that the Russian government perceives this information sharing as a «national security threat.»

Sokolov mentioned that he was collecting data for the UN’s Committee Against Torture to submit complaints regarding human rights abuses in Russia.

In Russia, treason charges can result in life imprisonment for men, while women may face a maximum of 20 years.

Law enforcement apprehended Sokolov on Tuesday and conducted a search of his home as part of a separate inquiry related to his alleged ties to an organization deemed «undesirable» in Russia.

It remains unclear which specific organization the activist is thought to be associated with; however, his own rights group, the Legal Foundation, is not prohibited in the country.

On the same day Sokolov was detained, authorities also arrested two other activists in the Urals region—Roman Kachanov and Larisa Zakharova—both of whom are associated with the Ural Human Rights Defenders organization.

These two individuals, who are also active in advocating for prisoners’ rights, have been charged with affiliations to an “undesirable organization.”

In a separate case, the Leninsky District Court in Yekaterinburg is reviewing charges against Sokolov for «repeatedly displaying extremist symbols» on his Telegram channel. As reported by Mediazona, the symbol in question is the Facebook logo.

In 2022, Russia classified Meta, Facebook’s parent company, as a “terrorist and extremist” organization, accusing it of «Russophobia» for refusing to eliminate content that urged violence against Russian soldiers amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.