The Observatory has been informed about the dry hunger strike initiated by Iryna Danilovich while
in detention. Ms Danilovich is a nurse and a citizen journalist who has
been working on disseminating the rights of medical workers and the
problems in the healthcare system in her media project called “Crimean
Medicine Without Cover”. She has also collaborated with the citizen
journalism outlet on human rights “Inzhir Media”. She remains
arbitrarily detained since April 2022 as reprisals for her work and
criticism to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On March 22, 2023, Iryna Danilovich
started a dry hunger strike to protest the authorities' refusal to
provide her with medical assistance in Detention Centre No. 1 in
Simferopol, Crimea, where she remained detained at the time of
publication of this Urgent Appeal.
On March 21, 2023, Ms Danilovich
fainted during her transfer to the Feodosia City Court, and the
authorities refused to call an ambulance. She had been brought to the
court so that she could get familiar with her case file. This is a
procedure that precedes the detainee’s transfer to a prison facility
after a verdict has been handed down, which enables the detainees and
their lawyers to file an appeal. Ms Danilovich was sentenced to seven
years in prison in December 2022 and due to her deteriorating health has
been unable to read through her case file since then. Yet, according to
her father, the administration of the detention centre claims Ms
Danilovich has been examined by a doctor who attested that her medical
condition does not preclude her from familiarising with the case file.
Ms Danilovich’s lawyer is planning to file an appeal.
Since her abduction on April 29,
2022, and subsequent detention, Ms Danilovich’s health condition has
seriously deteriorated. She has reported suffering from hearing loss,
continuous headaches and problems with her coordination of movements.
Furthermore, she suspects she has suffered a minor stroke. In December
2022, during a hearing, she declared feeling sick, but the doctor who
examined her back then falsified the medical report, falsely stating
that she refused a voluntary confinement in the hospital.
The Observatory recalls that on April 29, 2022, Iryna Danilovich was abducted,
allegedly by Russian law enforcement officers, while she was commuting
from the town of Koktebel to the city of Feodosia. On the same day,
Russian authorities conducted a search in her house and seized all
digital equipment and several books. Her whereabouts remained unknown
for 13 days, eight of which she was kept in inhuman conditions in the
basement of an FSB building. During that period, she was put a bag over
her head, and was given access to a toilet only twice a day and one meal
a day. She was subjected to a polygraph examination, while FSB officers
threatened to take her to a forest or to Russian-occupied Mariupol,
eastern Ukraine, should she hide information.
Iryna Danilovich was officially detained
on May 7, 2022, when she was forced to sign blank sheets of paper. She
was informed by FSB officers about the finding of two hundred grams of
explosives in her handbag. Her relatives located her in a pre-detention
centre in Simferopol on May 11, 2022, and two days later she appeared
before the Court of the Kyiv District of Simferopol. The FSB
Investigation Department opened a case against her for “illegal
acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of
explosives or explosive devices”. She was denied family visits
throughout the investigation period.
On December 28, 2022, the Feodosia City Court, Crimea, sentenced Iryna Danilovich
to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Rubles
(approximately 900 Euros) on the charge of “illegally purchasing and
storing explosives” (Part 1, Article 222.1 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Federation). Ms Danilovich pleaded not guilty to the charge,
maintaining that the evidence used against her - two hundred grams of
explosives - was planted in her handbag by Russian Federal Security
Service (FSB) officers after she was detained in April 2022.
The Observatory strongly condemns
the authorities’ reluctance to provide Iryna Danilovich with medical
assistance, as well as her ongoing arbitrary detention. The Observatory
urges the Russian authorities in control of Crimea to guarantee in all
circumstances her physical integrity and psychological well-being,
including by granting her access to adequate and comprehensive medical
treatment. The Observatory further urges the authorities to immediately
release her, quash her prison sentence and put an end to all acts of
harassment against her and all human rights defenders and journalists in
Russian-occupied Crimea.
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