Kremlin's political prisoner from Kherson region lost hearing in one ear in Russian colony

Rustem Guguryk, a resident of Novooleksiyivka in Kherson region, illegally sentenced by Russians to 8.5 years in a strict regime colony for allegedly participating in the "Noman Chelebidzhikhan volunteer battalion", has lost hearing in his left ear.

According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (CTRC), the man suffers from severe shortness of breath due to the lack of treatment - in the colony he is provided only with pills to thin the blood.

"The man is being held in a common cell for 70 people, and he is receiving low-quality food," the CTRC emphasized.

Gugurik was detained in March 2022 on the administrative border with Crimea, in Chongar. On that day, Rustem wanted to take his family to his relatives in Bakhchisarai. On March 31, the Russian-controlled "Kyiv District Court" of Simferopol arrested him for two months on suspicion of participating in the "Noman Chelebidzhikhan volunteer battalion". In October, the same "district court" sentenced the man to 8.5 years in prison. Since April 2024, he has been held in a high-security colony in Buryatia, during which time his health has deteriorated significantly.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of Crimea, controlled by the Russian Federation, sentenced a resident of Yalta, 56-year-old Vitaly Khomenko, to 18 years in prison in absentia for "high treason." In total, since 2017, human rights activists have recorded more than 10,000 violations of fundamental human rights in the Russian-annexed Crimea, including 6,730 against members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. This practice extends to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where Russian forces are also trying to intimidate people.

According to the Presidential Mission in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as of November 4, the occupiers illegally imprisoned 218 people on the peninsula, 132 of whom are Crimean Tatars. Of the total number, 43 are arrested (28 of them are Crimean Tatars), 151 are imprisoned (97 of them are Crimean Tatars), and 26 are without status (6 of them are Crimean Tatars).

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