Russia transfers imprisoned Ukrainian producer Sentsov to penitentiary in far North
The Ukrainian producer, Oleh Sentsov, who was sentenced in Russia to a 20 year imprisonment, is being transferred from Irkutsk to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, as he indicated in a letter to human rights activist, Zoya Svetova, which was published by Open Russia.
It is noted that the letter was dated September 17th and sent from the remand center (SIZO-1) in Tyumen on September 21st, and it was received on September 29th.
"I'm all right. I'm leaving. I was abruptly taken from Yakutia and driven to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. There is only one place to serve the sentence - the legendary Harps. How it was there, and how it is know, I think, you know better than me. I don’t expect anything good from this trip. Especially having travelled through the Irkutsk and Omsk central penitentiaries, I have some idea of how bad it is there and not only from the stories," wrote Sentsov.
In addition, he said that before the transfer he was handed a box with old letters and books that had been kept for 1.5 years by the prisoners.
Oleh Sentsov was arrested by Russian security services in the Crimea in May 2014 on the charges of organizing terrorist attacks on the peninsula.
In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Oleh Sentsov to 20 years in a penal colony on the charges of organizing terrorist activities within the territory of the Crimea.
Oleg Sentsov never confessed his guilt. Human rights organizations believe these accusations to be groundless and politically motivated.