Imprisoned journalist Asan Akhtemov has no dental care or necessary medicines in Russian colony, human rights defenders say
Crimean Tatar citizen journalist Asan Akhtemov, who is held by Russia in strict-regime penal colony No. 5 in the city of Koryazhma in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, is in declining health, the Crimean Human Rights Group has reported. Because of the lack of proper medical care, he cannot receive even dental treatment, although almost all his teeth have already been lost.
Asan Akhtemov. Photo credit: Crimea SolidarityAccording to human rights defenders, the journalist has only a few teeth left, which are constantly inflamed and painful. At the same time, the colony lacks dental care, and Akhtemov cannot even have a diseased tooth removed. They also do not allow necessary medicines to be passed to him, explaining that this is “not permitted”.
Asan Akhtemov is a Crimean Tatar civic journalist whom the Russian authorities are persecuting in a case concerning the sabotage of a gas pipeline near the village of Perekvalne in temporarily occupied Crimea. In 2022, the Southern District Military Court of the Russian Federation in Rostov-on-Don sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment: the first three years in prison, and the remainder of the term in a strict-regime colony. He was also fined 500,000 roubles and given a restriction of liberty for a term of one to one and a half years.
Russian occupying security forces detained Asan Akhtemov along with his brother Aziz and the deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Nariman Dzhelial, in September 2021.
In September 2022, the Russian-installed court in temporarily occupied Crimea sentenced Akhtemov to 15 years in a strict-regime colony in a case concerning alleged “sabotage on a gas pipeline” in Perevalne. The human rights organisations say the occupying prosecution provided no real evidence of his involvement in the incident. The key materials in the case file were statements obtained under torture. After the verdict, Akhtemov was convoyed to the Vladimir Central Prison and later taken to a colony in the Arkhangelsk region.
For more than five years, Asan Akhtemov has been in Russian captivity, serving a sentence in a fabricated case concerning alleged “sabotage” in temporarily occupied Crimea.
ZMINA previously reported that the health of citizen journalist Asan Akhtemov in a colony in the Russian Federation is worsening without treatment.
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