Human Rights Activist in Critical Condition after Hunger Strike
After five months of hunger strike, the Ukrainian filmmaker and Crimean native Oleg Sentsov, who have opposed the annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014, may not survive because of consequent damages to his health. After being convicted of terrorism on a trial questioned by human rights groups and Western governments for its political motivations, Sentsov was sentenced of 20 years in a Russian prison. Having initiated the hunger strike on May 14 in demand for the release of 64 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia, he was forced to end it to avoid being forced-fed by the authorities in the prison and was now transferred into an intensive-care unit.
The article below was published by Radio Free Europe:
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who ended his nearly five-month hunger strike in a Russian prison earlier this month [October 2018], may not survive because of damage to his health, his cousin says.
"Almost all his organs are severely affected," including liver, heart, and brain, Natalya Kaplan told journalists in Kyiv on October 16 [2018].
"The end of the hunger strike is a serious procedure, no one can say now whether Oleh will survive," she added.
Russian authorities have not commented publicly on Kaplan's statement.
Sentsov, a Crimean native who opposed Russia's 2014 takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula, is serving a 20-year prison term in Russia's far northern Yamalo-Nenets region.
He was convicted of terrorism in a trial that he, human rights groups, and Western governments contend was politically motivated.
The filmmaker started a hunger strike on May 14 [2018], demanding that Russia release 64 Ukrainians whom he considers political prisoners in Russia.
He ended his protest action on October 6 [2018], saying he had to do so to avoid being force-fedby the prison authorities.
At the end of his hunger strike, during which he was kept alive with nutrients administered via a drip, Sentsov had lost 20 kilograms.
Kaplan said her cousin was being treated in an intensive-care unit in the Yamalo-Nenets region.
"Unfortunately, his recent letters are quite pessimistic. He wrote a testament in which he asks not to abandon his children," she also said.
Sentsov has said he was against being transferred to an intensive-care unit.
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