The sentence of political prisoner Serhii Tsyhipa was left unchanged. His wife Olena Tsyhipa reported this to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
“The Court of Appeal listened to Serhii’s lawyer on the Geneva Conventions and retired to the conference room. We decided to leave the sentence of 13 years in a maximum security colony unchanged”,- she said.
In addition, she noted the man’s health problems, which, according to her, the prison administration does not take seriously.
“A tumor the size of a quail egg appeared on Serhii’s back. The doctor examined him, said that it was not that bad, it happens… He assumed that it was a cyst and left”,- she explains.
In a letter that Tsyhipa wrote to his wife, he notes that the reason his sentence is not changing is the problem that in the eyes of the Russian authorities he is not a common criminal, since his crime is considered a crime against the state.
We remind you that journalist Serhii Tsyhipa was kidnapped on March 12, when he was heading to Tavriisk to give his mother-in-law medicine; since then, contact with him has ceased. Only in October it became known that he was being held in pre-trial detention center 1 in Aqmescit (Simferopol), and later he was transferred to a new pre-trial detention center in Aqmescit (Simferopol).
Let us note that the charges in this case are based on the testimony of hidden witnesses and the conclusion of so-called experts who actively cooperate with Russian security forces. The consideration of the case took place in gross violation of international law.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center expresses a strong protest and declares that this decision is illegal, politically motivated and criminal. This policy of the Russian Federation is a demonstration of the fight against the political beliefs of citizens in the occupied Crimea.ь