On the 25th and 26th of June, a political prisoner and a Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh, in colony number 4 of the town of Torzhok in Tver Region/Oblast’ of the Russian Federation, was visited by his lawyer, Danylo Berman. Balukh said that he was going to announce a new hunger strike in order to demonstrate his own protest at the fact that he had been kept in detention for more than two months and was not allowed to see the Ukrainian consul. This was reported by his defender, according to the recent report by Novaya Gazeta.
“On the 25th of June, when I came to Mister Balukh, he already knew that the consul of his country had already unsuccessfully tried to break through to him. Before that, Balukh had twice submitted a respectful statement that if the consul of Ukraine was not allowed to him, he would go on a hunger strike. As all of these statements were ignored, Mister Balukh informed me that he was going on a hunger strike on the evening of the 25th of June, "the lawyer said.
It is noted that some other demands also remain unfulfilled: Mister Balukh wishes to have his psalter, warm underwear and a sweater returned.
"And I shall openly state: even if the rules of the detention facility do not allow having your own underwear, although such an opinion might be unprofessional, but I do not care about these rules, because I know that the purpose of punishment surely must not encompass the humiliation of human dignity and direct bullying",- underlines Berman.
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The lawyer believes that Balukh is being severely hurt, that he is always kept locked in a punishment cell, and now also in a room with almost no light, moreover, he is constantly freezing, he does not have a necessary access to the normal medical care that he apparently needs.
“As practice has shown, publicity in this case is the best lawyer possible. That is why my client asked me to inform the public and the media about his very own reasoning to start a hunger strike”,- Berman emphasized.
On the 16th of January 2017, the so-called Rozdol’nensky District Court of Crimea sentenced Volodymyr Balukh to 3 years and 7 months behind bars and imposed a fine of 10 thousand rubles. He was accused of storing ammunition. On the 14th of March, the so-called Supreme Court of Crimea changed his sentence and excluded from the prosecution the item on the acquisition of ammunition. Due to aforementioned, the sentence was changed to 3 years and 5 months behind bars.
On the 19th of March 2018, it became known that Volodymyr Balukh went on a hunger strike, protesting against such an unfair sentence. On the 23rd of June, a political prisoner announced an intensification of his hunger strike, switching to water only. Such a decision is a protest against provocations from the administration of the detention center against the Ukrainian activist. On the 9th of October 2018, it was reported that Balukh was being transferred to a Russian colony. This was the reason for the temporary cessation of the hunger strike.
On the 5th of July 2018, the so-called Rozdolnens’ky District Court of Crimea sentenced Volodymyr Balukh to 5 years in jail and a fine of 10 thousand rubles (around 4 thousand UAH / 150 USD / 120 EUR / 100 GBP) in the second criminal case on the disobedience at the temporary detention center.