Sochi blogger Valov sent to punishment cell

Alexander Valov, the former editor-in-chief of the “BlogSochi” website, was sent to a ShIZO (punishment cell) in the Irkutsk penal colony and was not taken to court, which was supposed to consider a motion for conditional early relief (CER). Furthermore, Alexander Valov was transferred to a strict regime of detention.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Alexander Valov, the editor-in-chief of the “BlogSochi” website, convicted on the charge of extortion, has been placed in a punishment cell in the penal colony in the Irkutsk Region. The decision to transfer Alexander Valov to the ShIZO was motivated not by a violation of internal regulations, but by “operational necessity.” On January 9, 2020, an advocate of Alexander Valov said that the blogger was considered a malicious violator of the rules of the penal colony. In July 2021, Alexander Valov handed over a letter to his relatives, in which he complained that he and other convicts were being kept in a bunker without warm clothes, their personal belongings were taken away, and the convicts were sent to the punishment cell on far-fetched reasons.

Alexander Valov, the former editor-in-chief of the “BlogSochi” website, who is serving his sentence in the penal colony in the Irkutsk Region, has been placed in the punishment cell, reports Sofya Rusova, the former co-chair of the Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers.

“On the eve of the trial, Alexander Valov was placed in the punishment cell. The blogger also said that his detention conditions were being tightened from general to strict ones and that he would be limited in the possibilities of phone calls, parcels, visits, and so on,” the “OVD-Info”* human rights project quoted Sofya Rusova as saying.

The former co-chair of the Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers has also added that Alexander Valov had four months left before his release from the penal colony and that the defence hoped for conditional early relief.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of unregistered public associations acting as foreign agents.