Imprisoned filmmaker Oleh Sentsov in catastrophic condition
Ukrainian political prisoner Oleh Sentsov, who has been starving for three months already in a Russian prison in Labytnangi, is in a critical condition, his cousin Natalya Kaplan posted on Facebook.
“Everything isn’t just bad, everything is catastrophically bad. Oleh sent me a letter through his lawyer, he can barely stand up. He said that the end is near, and he doesn’t mean release. He asks whether anyone is still interested in his hunger strike, they don’t pass on any letters to him, none! He says that he is now in an information vacuum and doesn’t know what is happening.
The European Court of Human Rights insists that he be transferred to a civilian hospital, one close to a border crossing. Oleh said no, that he simply will not survive the step, and that in the civilian hospital in Labytnangi, where has already ended up in intensive care, he is mocked even more than in prison.
This is Russia, baby… and I can’t imagine what can still be done or how to get him out… everything is very bad,” Kaplan said in her Facebook post.
At the same time, Alexey Zlovedov, press secretary to Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, said that according to Sentsov’s doctor, his condition is relatively stable.
“I spoke yesterday to human rights commissioner Anatoly Sak in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, at my request he called the doctor who is observing Oleh Sentsov in prison. According to the doctor, his condition is relatively stable,” Zlovedov told Interfax on Wednesday.
Oleh Sentsov has been on a hunger strike for more than three months, demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners.