Crimean activist Kostenko discriminated in Russian colony – lawyer

Crimean resident and Euromaidan activist Oleksandr Kostenko is being discriminated on the grounds of nationality in a Russian colony.

His lawyer Dmitry Sotnikov said this on the air of Crimea. Realities.

“The Ukrainians, who stay there with him, and he are being discriminated on the grounds of nationality. Most of the men who are serving sentence with him are Chechen. Due to the nature of this colony, this colony is for former law enforcement officers, he has a rough time,” the lawyer said.

According to him, Oleksandr Kostenko refused medical care in a colony and asked for the opportunity for treating his injured hand in the city hospitals.

“He refused the second operation in the colony. He says there are very unsanitary conditions there. People generally suffer from such diseases as hepatitis, HIV and so on, typical of a colony. Therefore, he asked to be operated in the city medical institutions. In general he asked not to be operated, he asked for rehabilitation of his hand. He has already had an operation, a part of his joint was removed back in Simferopol, and he is afraid that his hand will not work at all,” Dmitry Sotnikov noted.

As a reminder, February 5, 2015, Oleksandr Kostenko was kidnapped at the door of his house in Crimea and was taken to an unknown destination. The kidnappers were members of the Russian Security Service. The next day, he was informed that it had been an arrest. Kostenko was tortured, and then charged with assaulting a Berkut special riot police force officer during the Maidan protests in Kyiv (Kostenko threw a stone at him). Since the article did not provide for imprisonment, Kostenko was also charged with illegal possession of weapons. He was sentenced to four years and 3 months of imprisonment. Later, the term was reduced by four months.