The Federal Penitentiary Service’s branch in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District has denied that Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov has serious health problems caused by his lengthy hunger strike.
“The health of convict Oleh Sentsov is assessed as satisfactory based on the results of unscheduled medical examinations and lab tests. No negative dynamics are observed,” the branch’s press service told Interfax.
“In accordance with the doctor’s recommendations, he will be transferred from the medical unit of the establishment to a unit to continue serving his term. His health will be monitored in accordance with instructions given by civilian doctors,” it said.
The agency did not specify why Sentsov is not being given a package containing clothes and food that arrived in November.
Earlier, attorney Dmitry Dinze said on Ekho Moskvy radio that Sentsov was suffering from damage to his heart, liver, and kidneys as a result of the hunger strike.
Human rights activist Tatyana Shchur said the package containing warm clothes and food, which arrived for Sentsov three weeks ago, has still not been given to him. A notice about the parcel arrived in the Labytnangi colony in late November.
In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced Sentsov, arrested in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penitentiary for forming a terrorist group in Crimea.
On May 14, 2018, Sentsov went on hunger strike, demanding that Ukrainians incarcerated in Russia be released. He received nutrients intravenously.
On October 5, Valery Maksimenko, the deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, told Interfax that Sentsov had ended his hunger strike by agreeing in writing to receive food. The next day, the Ukrainian confirmed that he was doing so in order to avoid force-feeding. He said he believed that his hunger strike was not successful.
