Archbishop of the UOC-KP alleges the gross violation of rights of Crimea prisoner Balukh
Archbishop Kliment (Kushch) of Simferopol and Crimea of the UOC-KP alleges a gross violation of the rights of Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Baluch detained in the annexed Crimea. This is alleged in a statement on the official website of the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate.
The hierarch pointed out that he is not allowed to see the detained Ukrainian activist, although he has such a right as a public defender of Baluch, and the activist does not receive the necessary qualified medical aid that has caused his health to deteriorate.
The Ukrainian activist himself wrote an appeal explaining why he decided to go on a hunger strike, as well as how he had to suffer physical and moral abuse from the members of the Crimean pre-trial detention center.
“Dear Ukrainian community!
Using the rare opportunity to speak to you, let me outline the goals and progress of the protest hunger strike that I am in. Not a single time, for all my time in captivity, I did not take the prison meal and voluntarily I would not do it under any circumstances. On March 14, this year, when the subsequent false conviction in the case against me came in effect, I decided to proclaim a protest hunger strike, as a manifestation of my personal contempt for the occupation regime and their miserable attempts to deprive anyone of the freedom of all disagreeing with their FSB-generated “Ideology” of human hatred. On March 15 I submitted an application to the head of pre-trial detention center # 1 in Simferopol with the requirement to provide proper conditions for the possibility of exercising my right.
Since March 19, having been subjected to moral bullying, theft of personal belongings and beating by some prison staff, I finally managed to get the official recognition of my protest with a transfer to a separate cell. But provocations and moral pressure to discredit me and my protest have since intensified. On the 25th day of the hunger strike, after consulting with the Archbishop Klyment of Crimea, in order to minimize the probability of forced feeding and the unauthorized use of the medical means of life saving of the body, as well as to make me unharmed with my relatives, I decided to switch to another regime of protest: from that day on I take two cups of oatmeal daily, 50-70 g of black bread crackers and drink tea with honey every day.
Only God knows how much this balancing at zero point will last, but at the present time, any other methods of exposing the essence of the processes taking place in the Moscow-occupied Ukrainian Crimea are not available to me. I hope for your understanding.
Glory of Ukraine! Sincerely yours, Volodymyr Balukh.
