Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Hryb, who Russia last week sentenced to six years in prison for instigating a terrorist attack has officially declared a hunger strike and will be put in a separate cell at a pretrial detention facility, Leonid Petrashis, the head of the Public Monitoring Commission in the Rostov region, told Interfax.
“Pavlo Hryb submitted an official letter regarding a hunger strike. He is going to be examined by a doctor and put in a separate cell. The Public Monitoring Commission members warned him that, because of the hunger strike, he won’t be able to take gastritis medication prescribed to him, and this might have a negative effect on his health,” Petrashis said.
Pavlo Hryb had been detained while visiting Belarus on August 24, 2017. He was 19 at the time. It emerged later that he was held at a pretrial detention facility in Russia’s Krasnodar. Russia accused Hryb of instigation of terrorism. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The North Caucasus Military District Court sentenced Hryb to six years in a general security penitentiary last Friday. Hryb said in his last plea that he did not admit the charges of facilitating terrorist activities.
