28 Hostages of the Kremlyn

28 HOSTAGES OF THE KREMLIN
4. UKRAINIANS DETAINED FOR POLITICAL REASONS IN CRIMEA
An excerpt from Gennadiy Afanasyev’s statement of 3 November, 2015, transferred to the defence.
The statement was written by Gennady in the penal colony in Syktyvkar, where he was sent to serve
his sentence.
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Afanasyev’s mother reported that her son had been taken to a strict regime penal colony in the
city of Syktyvkar (northwest Russia). Shortly after his arrival at the colony, he was placed in solitary
confinement (punishment cell) under the pretense that, allegedly, the search had revealed
that he was carrying a blade. Gennadiy Afanasyev’s mother believes that the blade was deliberately
planted by the prison staff. 32 After leaving the solitary confinement cell, Afanasyev was
transferred to strict conditions of detention (stringent conditions include detention in a locked
room and increased surveillance of his behaviour, restriction of his contact with other inmates,
limits on the number of visits he could receive from relatives, as well as on the number of letters
and packages he could receive).
Torture was also used against another key witness in the case of ‘Crimean terrorists‘, Oleksiy
Chyrniy. In August 2014, Chyrniy was held in a psychiatric hospital wing of the detention facility
‘Butyrka’ (Moscow). The exact time of his stay there is unknown because the Russian side keeps
it confidential. Chyrniy is the only one of the accused who was held in a psychiatric hospital.
Unlawful methods of influence, including the administration of medicines, could have been applied
to him there.
On 3 February, 2015, Oleksiy Chyrniy met with Ukrainian consul Gennadiy Breskalenko in the
detention facility ‘Lefortovo’ (this was Chyrniy's first meeting with a Ukrainian diplomat since
his arrest in May 2014). During the meeting, Chyrniy informed the Ukrainian consul that during
his detention in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in May 2014, he was subjected to torture.
In particular, he suffered blows to the head and other body parts, measures of psychological
pressure and intimidation were used against him in order to compel him to give false testimony
regarding the charges brought against him.
Unlike in the case of Nadiya Savchenko, the criminal cases of Afanasyev, Chyrniy, Kolchenko
and Sentsov did not receive sufficient publicity which, consequently, prevented the opportunity
32 Facebook / The page of Olga Afanasyeva — https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=9570
82754386425&id=100002541289573