European Forum

Russian opposition activist dies in prison

On 1 July it was announced that a leading member of the opposition movement ‘Other Russia’ has died in prison after reportedly falling from a window. Prison officials say Rim Shaigalimov (52) committed suicide, yet his relatives think he was murdered.

His wife, Lyudmila Shaigalimova, told reporters that his death "must have been an order from above." The Russian Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an inquiry, which has already described Shaigalimov as a problem prisoner prone to suicide. Shaigalimova, however, told reporters that her husband never had suicidal tendencies, and that he had feared for his life in prison. She believes he may have been killed, and is pressing for an independent investigation.

Shaigalimov was on the seventh month of a five-year sentence for hitting a police officer during a demonstration, a charge he repeatedly denied. Shaigalimov was one of the leading Other Russia activists in the central region of Krasnoyarsk, and had led or participated in more than 100 protests, including some in which he demonstrated alone.

He had taken part in more than 100 opposition demonstrations, some of them solitary pickets. He was a member of the Other Russia coalition, and a one-time deputy to the organisation’s alternative parliament, the National Assembly.


Sources: The Other Russia; Radio Svoboda