11:30 21.06.2018

Denisova asks Justice Ministry to appeal to ECHR due to violation of Sentsov's rights

2 min read
Denisova asks Justice Ministry to appeal to ECHR due to violation of Sentsov's rights

Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova has said that she appealed to Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister Ivan Lischyna with a request to submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on violation of the rights of Ukrainian citizen Oleh Sentsov, who was imprisoned for political reasons in Russia.

"We do not have reliable information about Oleh Sentsov's health. Given statements by Russian commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova, there are reasons to believe that Oleh is being force-fed," Denisova wrote on her Facebook page.

She said that feeding against someone's own will is "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and is prohibited by international law."

"Therefore, I appealed to Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister Ivan Lischyna with a request to submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights about violation of the rights of Ukrainian citizen Oleh Sentsov, who was imprisoned by the Russian Federation for political reasons," she said.

The North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don ruled in August 2015 to sentence Sentsov, who had been detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a strict security penitentiary for setting up a terrorist group in the peninsula.

Sentsov is serving his sentence in a high-security correctional facility known as Bely Medved (Polar Bear) in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district. He declared a hunger strike on May 14, demanding that all Ukrainians held in Russia be freed.

On June 20, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova said that she had sent a letter to Moskalkova to ask her to facilitate Sentsov's liberation and forward the relevant request to the Russian president.

On June 20, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland told journalists that Sentsov should be pardoned for humanitarian reasons.

"I believe that Mr. Sentsov should be released on humanitarian grounds," Jagland said after meeting with Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova.

"If there is a need for a request for pardoning him, I would gladly do it on the basis of the European Convention of Human Rights," he said.

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