In Crimea imprisoned Ukrainian Lugin cut his veins in protest against his transfer to Mordovia
In Crimea, convicted Ukrainian Andriy Lugin cut his veins in protest against his re-transfer to the territory of the Republic of Mordovia and the lack of proper medical treatment.
As reported by Vitaliy Nabukhotny, lawyer of the NGO Regional Human Rights Centre, to the Human Rights Information Centre referring to the convict’s wife Iryna Lugin.
The lawyer reminds that on April 24 Lugin has declared a dry hunger strike in protest against his transfer.
According to Nabukhotny, another Ukrainian citizen Yuriy Mykhaylov, who was also temporarily transferred from the territory of the Russian Federation to the detention center of Simferopol, is in a similar situation. On April 24, Mykhaylov also announced a dry hunger strike in protest against his transfer.
Their transfer to the correctional colonies on the territory of the Russian Federation was scheduled for today, April 26.
According to the lawyer, Lugin and Mykhaylov were sentenced in 2010 by the verdict of the Court of Appeal of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The decision was enacted in 2012, by the verdict of the Specialized Higher Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases. They were moved from the territory of the Crimean peninsula by the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation to the territory of Russia in mid-2016.
As a reminder, Ukrainian citizen Andriy Lugin, who was sentenced by Ukrainian courts, announced a dry hunger strike in Simferopol SIZO (pre-trial detention centre). The prisoner refuses to recognize himself as a citizen of Russia and demands to immediately resolve the issue of his transfer to mainland Ukraine. Lugin has a number of serious illnesses, including one very rare illness. But medical assistance is not provided to the prisoner.
Lugin’s family lives in the Crimea. However, the Russian authorities took him from the Crimea to one of the colonies in Mordovia.
In March of 2017, Lugin was transfered from Mordovia to Simferopol for some kind of investigative actions. He was promised to be left in Crimea, but now, on April 26, he is at risk of being transferred back to Mordovia.
Lugin prepared and delivered an open appeal to the Ukrainian authorities and international institutions, in which he asks to force the Russia to abide the PACE Resolution of 12.10.2016 and not to transfer him and other convicts from the Crimea, as well as to extradite the convicts, who wish to serve their sentence in Ukraine, to Ukraine.
On March 17, Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, transferred 12 people from the penitentiary institutions of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the mainland Ukraine. The transfer was carried out by using the ad hoc mechanism, which was previously proposed by Ukrainian ombudsman.
Negotiations on the transfer of Ukrainian convicts to mainland Ukraine were conducted between the offices of Ombudsmen of Ukraine and Russia for more than two years.
On April 25, the office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights sent a letter to Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova in order to “deal” with the situation with prisoner Andriy Lugin, who is on a hunger strike in the annexed Crimea.
As reported by Mykhailo Chaplyha, representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, in the commentary to Krym.Realiyi, the department continues to work on transferring the “new batch” of prisoners from the annexed Crimea.
