Crimean Tatar political prisoner Yashar Shykhametov has lost 30 kg (about 66 lb) since being sentenced to imprisonment in a Russian penal colony, and his joints are so badly damaged that he is almost unable to walk.
Source: Crimean Solidarity Human Rights Movement, citing the prisoner’s wife, Liliia Shykhametova
Details: Shykhametov was previously held in a medical facility in Saratov, in Russia’s southwest, but in early summer he was transferred to prison before doctors could provide the treatment he needed.
He is now serving his sentence in Penal Colony IK-37 in the village of Yaya, Kemerovo Oblast, Siberia. Liliia said her husband has been granted an additional two hours of daytime rest, a hard bed, and slippers [since he is unable to wear shoes for medical reasons – ed.].
The political prisoner has been exempted from work and is scheduled to receive medical treatment and disability certification.
Shykhametov said he suffers from worn intervertebral discs, the destruction of his hip and knee joints, heart problems, suspected diabetes, poor hearing and vision, high blood pressure and kidney stones.
“I feel severe pain when walking or sitting. That’s why I can hardly walk,” he said. “If I walk, I use crutches. It takes me two and a half hours to walk 50 metres. After walking I am in a lot of pain everywhere and I have to take painkillers. Because I have stomach ulcers, the medicine makes my stomach hurt.”
Shykhametov has appealed to the administration of Penal Colony IK-37 to be transferred to hospital for treatment and certified as disabled.
He also said that if he were given a wheelchair, it would increase his mobility and reduce the pain he experiences because of walking.
Russian security forces opened a criminal case against Yashar Shykhametov and five other Crimean Tatars in February 2021 following mass raids in several districts of the peninsula.
Shykhametov was accused of involvement in the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is banned in Russia but legal in Ukraine and many other countries.
The Russian secret services claim that while working in a café, Shykhametov engaged in “ideological work” and “anti-constitutional activity” by attending gatherings and recruiting new supporters.
The main evidence in the case came from “secret witnesses” who, according to Shykhametov’s lawyer, may not even have known the political prisoner.
Quote from lawyer Oleksii Ladin: “The answers to the prosecution’s questions [during cross-examination] were standard ones, but when questioned by the defence, the witnesses replied: ‘I don’t remember.’ It is obvious to us that the secret witnesses did not know Shykhametov for a number of objective reasons. They claim to have gone to his café for two years, but they couldn’t remember what it was called, when the name is written in large letters above the entrance.”
Details: In September 2022, the Russians sentenced Shykhametov to 11 years’ imprisonment in a penal colony, with the first four years to be served under harsher conditions.
For reference: Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamic political party that Russia has declared a terrorist organisation. Many Crimean Tatar political prisoners are accused of involvement in this movement on the basis of fabricated evidence.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
From Ukrainska Pravda via this RSS feed