Sentsov refuses to ask Putin for pardon
Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who has been sentence to 20 years in prison in Russia, refuses to write a petition for a pardon, stated his lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, reports Interfax.
"Oleg is against a pardon. he will not write anything to the [Russian] President," Dinze said. According to the lawyer, Sentsov's condition remains unchanged.
"He says he basically lays down, because he started having problems with his kidneys and heart. He had a crisis on the 26th day of the hunger strike. He was at that time taken to a hospital where his condition was stabilized. Three to four liters of various nutrient fluids are now being pumped through him using a catheter, since all [his] veins have already been struck during previous procedures," Dinze said.
The day prior, Sentsov’s lawyer said the director had refused to stop the hunger strike on the request of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In March, Dinze had reported that Sentsov was ready to write a petition for pardon. When asked about a possible exchange and pardon by the President of the Russian Federation, the lawyer replied: "He is waiting for this; but he himself says that this will not happen very soon. And if it will change, then obviously [it will have to be for] several people at once ... you either write and you go, or you sit for longer. Oleg is ready to write."
A court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in maximum-security prison in August 2015. He was convicted "of creating a terrorist community on the territory of the peninsula." Sentsov is being kept in a maximum-security facility in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, also known as the "Polar Bear".
On May 14, Sentsov went on a hunger strike demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia.