Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Valeriya Lutkovska has asked her Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova, to provide information about the health of Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Kolchenko, who is illegally held in Russia, in light of reports about his hospitalization, the Ukrainian commissioner’s press service said.
“I request that you tell me the name of the medical institution where Oleksandr Kolchenko has been hospitalized, provide relevant information on his health status, ensure the provision of qualified medical aid to him, and inform me of the causes of the decline in his health in the penitentiary,” Lutkovska said.
Oleksandr Kolchenko’s mother, Larysa Kolchenko, said earlier that her son’s health had worsened. She said he had dramatically lost weight at the penitentiary and been diagnosed with “weight deficit,” which prompted his urgent hospitalization.
The North Caucasus Military District Court in Rostov-on-Don ruled in Aug. 2015 to find Ukrainian citizen Oleh Sentsov, who had been detained in Crimea in 2014, guilty of setting up a terrorist group in the peninsula and sentenced him to 20 years in a high-security penal colony. Kolchenko was sentenced to 10 years in the same case.
Sentsov and Kolchenko filled out forms in early May 2016 to be transferred to Ukraine to serve their sentences there.
The Russian Supreme Court ruled on June 1, 2016 to decline an appeal of Sentsov’s and Kolchenko’s conviction.
It was reported in Kyiv on Oct.21, 2016 that Russia had denied Sentsov’s and Kolchenko’s transfer to Ukraine.
