Umerov on staying in psychiatric clinic: This was real torture

Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Ilmi Umerov says his three-weeks stay in a psychiatric clinic was “a real torture.”

He said this in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

“You’re held in a department of closed type psychiatric clinic with a bathroom in a terrible condition. You constantly contact with people who are really mentally ill, who have been staying here for a long time, for years. This is a method to influence a normal person. It’s an execution to spend three weeks in such conditions and it can be called one big torture. One must have a sufficiently strong will power to stand it. Besides, I gave up on food at the clinic, eating only what I was brought from home, and did not take any medicines the staff gave me,” Ilmi Umerov said.

He said that he had stayed in the ward alone, but three more people had been put in his ward in the last ten days. In addition, Umerov was not allowed to walk in the hospital alone. 

The worst thing in the clinic, according to Umerov, was going to the toilet and shower.

“The toilet of the psychiatric clinic was turned to a so-called club by its patients. They come there to socialize, smoke, drink tea, while a place to defecate is not closed, so you are sitting as if on the stage. I could not go to the toilet for the first five days, then I complained to the administration and was allowed to use the toilet of the employees. So, the worst thing I remember is a toilet and shower,” he noted.

He also told about the final stage of the psychiatric examination.

“The doctor responsible for me submitted a report to members of the commission. We talked for about 15-20 minutes. Everything was in a very friendly manner, they are all my colleagues because I hold a degree in medicine. Therefore, it was not a problem to convince them that I am mentally healthy. They took a unanimous decision that I have no mental deviations. The plans, which the investigation apparently had to discredit me, failed,” Umerov said.

He added that, in his opinion, putting him in a psychiatric clinic is a method to influence a person. It is also an attempt of the FSB to revive the so-called punitive psychiatry.

“However, fortunately, the medical personnel do not have such intentions,” Umerov said.

As reported, the Russian law enforcement authorities in Crimea opened a criminal case against Ilmi Umerov under “separatism” article. August 11, Ilmi Umerov felt badly in the courtroom. The doctors hospitalized him with a suspected heart attack. After that, Russian-controlled court of Simferopol took a decision to send Umerov to inpatient forensic psychiatric examination.