Ukrainian political prisoner issues urgent appeal over ‘Gestapo-like’ treatment in Russian women’s prison

Iryna Danilovych has described “torture without leaving traces” and Gestapo-like methods in an appeal addressed to Pina Picierno, Vice-President of the European Parliament.  Danilovych is a recognized Ukrainian political prisoner whose abduction in occupied Crimea; 7-year sentence, and Russia’s medical torture in refusing her urgently needed medical care have received international condemnation, and prompted Picierno to become her mentor, speaking out on her behalf.  In this case, however, Iryna has asked Picierno to draw the attention of fellow members of the European Parliament to the appalling conditions that all prisoners are subjected to in the Zelenokumsk women’s prison colony in Russia where she is held. 

Danilovych writes that the prison administration create intolerable conditions, using methods similar to those described in books about the Nazi Gestapo. The types of ‘torture without trace’ applied to the several hundred women in the prison colony include torture through constant glaring light blazing 24 hours a day.  There is no escape from these harsh lights, with even blindfolds not helping.  You can’t sleep and the women suffer from permanent headaches and pain from the glare. 

For several hours from 6 a.m. every morning, the speakers work at full blast, with this particularly painful for Iryna who was denied any form of treatment for a severe ear infection while held in detention.  She has probably suffered permanent hearing loss in one ear as a consequence and writes that the blaring sound is excruciating painful for her inflamed inner ear. 

The Crimean Human Rights Group notes that Danilovych earlier wrote of the appalling and unsanitary conditions in the prison, as well as the ill-treatment that prisoners receive from the convoy staff.  The women had, for example, been forced to stand for many hours outside in the rain, or in severe freezing conditions.  

In her appeal, she asks that the information be made public and that people write to Russia’s ‘human rights ombudsperson’ Tatyana Moskalkova.  The latter was not selected for the post by Russian leader Vladimir Putin because of any respect for human rights, however such letters, especially from abroad, do demonstrate that Russia’s treatment of the Ukrainian political prisoner is under scrutiny. 

Everything about Russia’s persecution of Iryna Danilovych (b. 1979) has been lawless and brutal.  The nurse, human rights defender and civic journalist would have been long been on the Russian FSB’s radar because of her refusal to be silent about mounting repression, injustice and rights violations in occupied Crimea.  She was a regular contributor to independent media initiatives, like INzhir Media and Crimean Process, which provide vital coverage of Russian repression and political prisoners. She was also the head of the Crimean branch of the Alliance of Doctors trade union and had taken part in attempts to obtain the promised, yet never provided, supplementary payments for medical workers in connection with the pandemic. She spoke publicly, without concealing her real name, about the lies that the occupation authorities were telling about the real number of covid patients. 

She was, in short, an obvious target for Russia’s FSB.  She was abducted by FSB officers in the early morning of 29 April 2022, as she was waiting for a bus to return home after a night shift. She was held incommunicado, in a basement, for a week before being formally detained on 7 May 2022. During that time, her FSB captors subjected her to torture and threats, trying to force her into ‘confessing’ to fictitious contacts with foreign organizations and to so-called ‘state treason’. Having failed to break her will, they claimed, a week after first searching her belongings, that they had ‘found’ explosives in her glasses case. 

The FSB have, unfortunately, understood the near total degree of impunity they have on occupied Ukrainian territory and make little or no effort to come up with credible charges.  In this case, no attempt was ever made, nor demanded, to explain how Danilovych was supposed to have come by the explosive substance, nor why she should have carried it with her during an entire nightshift at the Malakhit Medical Centre in Koktebel where she was working.

The ‘trial’ took place under ‘judge’ Natalia Kulinskaya at the occupation ‘Feodosia municipal court’.  Danilovych stated from the outset that she had been abducted, not ‘arrested’, with her account of events backed by CCTV footage of her seizure, as well as by the FSB’s refusal to reveal her whereabouts.  The FSB even claimed that Danilovych had ‘voluntarily’ remained in their basement, with a bed, a shower, food, and other necessary items.  They asserted that she could have left at any moment, but ‘decided to remain’ for want of a place to stay in Simferopol.  Kulinskaya turned a blind eye to all of this, ignoring even the fact that the FSB contradicted their own story. Had Iryna been in custody because of the explosives from the outset, she would not have been free to leave. If, however, she had not been able to leave, then why had there been no official charges until 7 May?  On 28 December 2022, Kulinskaya handed down the entire 7-year sentence demanded by ‘prosecutors’ Dmitry Lyashchenko and Yulia Matvyeya.  This also made no sense as she also removed the part of the charges alleging that Danilovych had purchased the explosives since the FSB had not even tried to come up with some plausible explanation.  A 50-thousand rouble fine was also imposed.

The sentence was upheld on 29 June 2023 by the occupation ‘Crimean high court’ with no attempt made here either to imitate a real review of the case.  Presiding ‘judge’ Valeria Chernetska and two colleagues reduced the 7-year sentence by all of one month. 

Neither ‘court’ paid any attention to the medical torture that Danilovych had suffered, and the fact that she was simply not in a state to prepare for the hearings due to the failure to provide any treatment over many months for a severe and very painful ear infection. 

PLEASE write to Iryna Danilovych! 

All letters tell her that she is not forgotten, and Moscow that it is being watched.  the letters, unfortunately, need to be handwritten and in Russian.  They should also be on ‘safe’ subjects, as they will be read by the censor. 

If that is a problem, or if you have more time, please try to circulate information about Russia’s brutal persecution of Iryna Danilovych.  Publicity can help to force Russia to agree to include her in a prisoner exchange. Ideas for how western diplomats could also assist can be found here.

Address (which can be written in Russian or English, but must have her year of birth)

357910 Российская Федерация, ул. Почтовая д.78, Ставропольский край, г. Зеленокумск,  ИК-7 Зеленокумск

Данилович, Ирине Брониславовне, г.р. 1979

[Or in English:

357910 Russian Federation, Pochtovaya St, No. 78, Stavropol Krai, Zelenokumsk, Women’s Prison Colony No. 7

Danilovich, Iryna Bronislavovna, b. 1979 ]