Fanis Shaykhutdinov

Fanis Shaykhutdinov, one of the leaders of the Tatar Public Centre, together with former Guantanamo prisoners Ravil Gumarov and Timur Ishmaratov, collected and delivered food parcels to Muslims held in Tatarstan's pre-trial detention center No. 3 in Bugulma. After threats from local operatives, all three were detained on allegedly fabricated charges for exploding of a local domestic gas pipeline, which, according to the first version of the investigation and according to many residents of the town, was a technical accident. On 28 September 2005, the jury unanimously rendered a verdict of acquittal, but the prosecutor's office objected on a technicality. The Supreme Court cancelled the acquittal verdict and sent the case for a new trial. Shaikhutdinov was arrested again on 6 March in Moscow. In May 2006, he was found guilty by a new jury and sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison. In July 2006, the defence appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, requesting that the case be sent for a new trial due to procedural violations. On 29 November 2006, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 10 and a half years' imprisonment. In April 2007, Shaykhutdinov was severely beaten in an isolation centre in Irkutsk. Whilst in the penal colony, he spent at least 16 months in a punishment cell type facility