Imprisoned Maidan activist Kostenko may get disability due to improper treatment

The lawyer of the political prisoner announced he had already filed the complaint with the European Court. He intends to file two more complaints, including about the fact of tortures.

Lawyer Dmytro Sotnikov says that the whereabouts of Kostenko were unknown until late after Kostenko had been transferred from Crimea.

“We found out that he was in the colony No. 5 in Kirov region of Russia just 1.5 weeks ago,” the lawyer said.

As the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports, Sotnikov plans to visit his client in mid-December. Primarily, in order to monitor how the medical assistance is being provided to the political prisoner (Kostenko had a broken arm and a dislocated forearm after he had been beaten by the Russian security service officers).

“He was operated immediately after imposition of sentence. However, no rehabilitation programs were provided, the doctor’s recommendations were not fulfilled. The effect of the operation was very low,” Sotnikov said.

According to him, Kostenko needs the second operation, otherwise he could get a disability.

The lawyer said that Kostenko, the Maidan activist, had been abducted during the protests. He managed to escape from the abductors near Bryansk, Russia, and return to Crimea. February 5, 2015, he was detained and beaten by the Russian security service officers near the tower-block he lived in. Afterwards, he was taken to the security service office, and later to the Investigative Committee of Russia, where he signed a full confession that he allegedly threw a stone at an officer of the Berkut special police force in Crimea. He was charged under the article “minor injury on grounds of ideological hatred.”

Later, the criminal proceedings over bodily injury to Berkut officers, who got Russian citizenship, were instituted against him.

Due to the fact that the abovementioned crime refers to minor offenses, which do not provide for imprisonment, the investigating authorities decided to bring some more charges against Kostenko. Then the weapons were planted on the activist and he was searched. He was subsequently accused under the article “storage of components of weapons” and given the maximum stipulated period – four years and two months.

After the appeal had been lodged, the term was reduced by three months in view of mitigating circumstances (minor child).