Detainees in Crimea Kept in Inhumane Conditions
Nearly 2,500 people are held in a detention facility in Simferopol, although it is only designed for 1,100 people, says lawyer Nikolay Polozov.
“People have to take turns sleeping. Given the geographical location of Crimea, the summer is very hot and unbearable,” he said in Kyiv.
It is virtually impossible for lawyers, public defenders, or relatives to visit.
“Getting arrested in Crimea poses such a significant challenge for a person that, in my opinion, it needs to be considered torture. This designation can only be made by a monitoring mission, but they are not allowed to Crimea,” said Polozov.
He also regrets that the talks between the Russian and Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioners, which had to do with the transfer of detained Ukrainians so that they may serve their sentences in Ukraine, were to no avail.
“According to my information, it ended in nothing, and some people were simply taken into Russian territory. It is unknown where they are. Perhaps in some Russian corrective labor colony. Relatives are not informed about it.”
Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov earlier announced the establishment of an International Committee on Human Rights in Occupied Crimea. It will develop a mechanism for lawyers to visit Crimea in order to participate in trials of Ukrainian citizens on the peninsula and work to protect their interests.
