Human rights activists reveal 22 Russian criminal’s names denying Crimean political prisoners access to proper medical care

Currently, 186 Crimean political prisoners are being held captive in Russia and occupied Crimea. Many of them, despite the health reasons and existing diagnoses, are deliberately placed in conditions of total lack of proper medical care, thus violating their rights. Specific individuals from among the representatives of the Russian authorities are directly involved in this. Hence, the ZMINA Human Rights Center and the Crimean Human Rights Group have prepared a list of 22 Russian officials who violate the rights of political prisoners.

The human rights activists announced this as part of the country’s main discussion platform BrainHub at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. 

According to Viktoria Nesterenko, Project Manager at ZMINA Human Rights Center, the list of those involved in the failure to provide medical care to political prisoners includes judges, prosecutors, heads of pre-trial detention centers and colonies, heads of medical services in occupied Crimea and Russia.

At the same time, Iryna Siedova, a researcher at the Crimean Human Rights, emphasized that this particular list included high-ranking officials with titles such as colonel of justice, colonel of the internal service, or judges who had committed a large number of offenses. However, according to her, the list of those in charge of these crimes actually includes several hundred people.

“In this particular list, we have gathered evidence against those who, first of all, are not yet on the international sanctions list. They are also listed on the principle of being directly involved in medical care denial. That is, the heads of the medical units where they were supposed to treat prisoners, but deliberately failed to fulfill obligations,” she explained.

The human rights activists noted that they plan to pass the list of Russian criminals to the Ukrainian authorities for the prosecutor’s office’s further investigation of these cases and the commencement of the criminal procedure against these people. In addition, the list will be submitted to various international institutions for the imposition of sanctions.

As a reminder, in early 2023, two Ukrainian political prisoners, Dzhemil Gafarov and Kostiantyn Shyrinh, died in Russian prisons due to the lack of medical attention. They had complicated chronic diseases, and their health condition gradually deteriorated in the detention center, but the center’s authorities constantly refused to hospitalize them and forbade them to receive medicines. The officials responsible for their deaths have not been held accountable.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc. 

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news