Political prisoner Roman Tyurin died almost a year ago

Roman Tyurin, a political prisoner from the Omsk region who was sentenced four times over social media posts, died almost a year ago, on February 17, 2025. This was reported by a prison employee to an activist who had been writing letters to Tyurin.

The activist received back an unopened envelope containing her letter to the political prisoner. Attached to it was a form from Penal Colony IK-8 in the Omsk region stating: “We are returning to you a sealed envelope addressed to Roman Vladimirovich Tyurin. Tyurin R. V. died on 17.02.2025.” The form itself is dated May 28, 2025.

Roman Tyurin was most likely detained in connection with his first criminal case in early August 2023. Before that, several posts per day had appeared on his social media page, but after August 2, no further publications were made. On February 9, 2024, he was sentenced to four years in prison for justifying terrorism online (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). On May 27, 2024, his sentence was increased to six years following a new verdict in a case concerning the dissemination of “fake news” about the Russian army (Point “d”, Part 2, Article 207.3).

His third sentence was handed down on October 3, 2024, in a case concerning repeated discrediting of the Russian army (Part 1, Article 280.3), and the fourth on November 18, 2024, under articles on online calls for activities directed against Russia’s security (Point “v”, Part 2, Article 280.4) and repeated display of banned symbols (Part 1, Article 282.4). As a result of the four verdicts, his total prison sentence amounted to six and a half years.