Iryna Danilovych's Health Deteriorates in Russian Penal Colony Amid Abuse

The Crimean human rights activist and citizen journalist Iryna Danilovych, convicted by Russia, suffers from severe heart pain, which makes it impossible to sleep normally.

According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, this was reported by the activist's relatives. They noted that Danilovich does not receive proper medical treatment for heart pain, although she regularly seeks medical help from the colony administration. The Crimean woman herself suggests that the cause of the pain was the torture she suffered in the first months of her arrest.

"The cause of the pain has not been found out, and it is not yet known whether these could be the first signs of a microinfarction or the effects of stress and nerves. Lack of medical care combined with constant abuse only worsens her physical condition," they added.

Earlier, the head of the board of the ZMINA Human Rights Center , Tetyana Pechonchyk, said that Irina Danilovich is being held in terrible conditions in a penal colony in the Stavropol Territory of the Russian Federation. According to her, Danilovich and other prisoners are forced to endure the abuse of convoy guards, drink water with a dead body taste (due to the corpses of animals in the water supply system), they are forced to stand for hours in the rain and cold, deprived of food and proper medical care. The colony's premises are also full of rats and cockroaches. The human rights activist also noted that Danilovich is being held in a barracks for 120 people without proper heating: in winter, ice freezes there, and in summer it is unbearable heat.

In the occupied Crimea, Russians are actively persecuting the local population. The occupation authorities open about half of all administrative cases against women. In total, since 2017, 10,018 violations of fundamental human rights have been recorded in the Russian-annexed Crimea, 6,730 of them against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

Олеся Ланцман