“Gestapo methods”: political prisoner Iryna Danylovych calls on the European Parliament to condemn torture in a Russian colony where she is held

Citizen journalist and political prisoner Iryna Danylovych has appealed to the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, to draw attention to the mass abuse in the Russian women’s penal colony in Zelenokumsk, where she is being held.

According to ZMINA, the appeal was conveyed by her relatives.

Danylovych stated that the administration of women’s penal colony No. 7 in Zelenokumsk, Stavropol Krai, is creating “endless hell” for prisoners.

According to her, the bright lights in the colony are never turned off, causing headaches and making it impossible to sleep, and every day for several hours, equipment operates at extremely high volumes right inside the cell block. This exhausts the political prisoner, as she suffers from an ear infection that is not effectively treated in the colony.

“Even bandages over the eyes don’t help“, Danylovych says, commenting on the constant light.

In addition, according to Danylovych, women are forced to stand outside for hours in the rain or cold, which she considers a form of torture.

Danylovych asks Pina Picierno to convey these facts to the European community and draw attention to the situation of women in Russian prisons. The Vice-President of the European Parliament has repeatedly expressed her support for the imprisoned journalist.

“I ask you to make this public. I urge everyone who cares to speak out“, Iryna said.

She also called on people to contact the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Tetiana Moskalkova, urging her to stop the torture and human rights violations against imprisoned women in Zelenokumsk.

Iryna Danylovych is a nurse and civic activist from Feodosia who worked with the publication INjir Media and the human rights project Crimean Process. She defended the rights of healthcare workers on the peninsula: she joined an independent trade union and frequently wrote about violations of their rights, such as underpayments for work with COVID-19 patients. She also ran a social media page and several blog columns dedicated to the rights of healthcare workers and healthcare issues in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

FSB officers abducted Iryna on 29 April and held her in an FSB basement until 7 May without any legal status or access to a lawyer. She was interrogated using a polygraph and subjected to psychological pressure: they promised to take her to the forest, to Mariupol, and she was fed only once a day. She also spoke about this in the illegal “court” in Feodosia.

Despite the outrage of the international human rights community, on 28 December 2022, the “Feodosia City Court” delivered a verdict against Iryna Danylovych. She was sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of 50,000 roubles for allegedly possessing explosives.

It is worth recalling that Danylovych suffers from severe headaches, as she is suspected to have acute inflammation of the middle and inner ear. There is a risk of brain inflammation, which could be fatal, yet she is not receiving proper treatment.

Earlier, ZMINA reported that Danylovych cannot sleep due to pain.