The 27-year-old Crimean artist Bogdan Ziza, convicted because of an anti-war action, was transported to the Vladimir Central prison and placed in a punishment cell for five days. His lawyer informed the Solidarity Zone about this.
The lawyer came to visit the artist on December 1 and learned that he was in a punishment cell. According to the defense lawyer, the reason for placement in the punishment cell was that Ziza, upon arrival at the prison, refused to put on a prison uniform, saying that he was not a criminal.
“In general, Bogdan feels good, his mood is cheerful, despite difficult stage and ending up in a punishment cell. After the verdict came into force, he was transferred from the Novocherkassk pre-trial detention center, and he went through as many as seven transfers,” the lawyer said.
In June, Zizou, who threw buckets of blue and yellow paint on the façade of the Yevpatoria City Hall last May, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He will spend the first four years of his sentence in prison. The graffiti artist was accused of throwing, in addition to paints, an unignited Molotov cocktail at the administration of the annexed city. The actions of the Crimean citizen were qualified by the security forces as vandalism, preparing for a terrorist attackand justification of terrorism.
Ziza filmed his actions on his phone and, before his arrest, managed to edit a video manifesto, which was later published by the pro-government Crimean blogger and informer Alexander Talipov.
“There is a terrible war that Putin unleashed, and the entire state propaganda machine is trying its best to convince the people that this is normal <…> But now it’s very important to go out and express your protest,” the artist said in the video.
Shortly after the verdict, the artist went on a hunger strike in the Simferopol pre-trial detention center, and then he was transferred to a punishment cell.
Two buckets of paint and a Molotov cocktail. How artist Bogdan Ziza from Yevpatoria became a symbol of the Crimean resistance in Ukraine