Hunger strike enters 100 days
But still no sign of respite for Ukrainian jailed in Russia
MOSCOW: Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov entered day 100 of his hunger strike, as he languishes in a Russian Arctic prison on terror charges with little hope of release.
The 42-year-old Kremlin opponent announced the hunger strike in May, demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners being held in Russia.
But Russian authorities seem as far from freeing him or his countrymen as ever, despite a dramatic decline in his health and pressure from the West.
Sentsov’s cousin said last week Sentsov was “losing hope” and had said in a recent letter he felt the “end is near”.
“In his letter, he wrote to me that we mustn’t tell him any more that freedom is coming. He doesn’t believe it any more,” Natalia Kaplan said.
The father of two is receiving supplements in a drip usually meant for people unable to eat.
Sentsov was convicted of planning arson attacks on pro-Moscow party offices in Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
He had taken part in the Maidan protests in Kiev during the winter of 2013-2014 that culminated in pro- Russian president Viktor Yanukovych leaving office and fleeing the country.
Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for terrorism and arms trafficking after a trial denounced as “Stalinist” by Amnesty International.
Kiev, the European Union and the United States also criticised the process against him.
Journalist and activist Zoya Svetova said Sentsov had no plans to end his hunger strike, after she visited him in his penal colony in the Russian north last week.
But she said: “He is not on a suicide mission, he just wants and hopes to live”. — AFP