Crimean citizen journalist Amet Suleymanov’s health state worsens in russian prison

Crimea citizen journalist Amet Suleymanov, sentenced by a russian court to 12 years in prison, had a second hypertensive crisis while in the russian prison Vladimirsky Tsentral. Amet Suleymanov‘s wife, Lilya Liumanova, who obtained permission to visit her husband, told reporters.

According to her, Amet Suleymanov feels weak in body, is periodically concerned about heart pain. Against the background of high blood pressure, he has a hard time enduring the heat and poor air quality.

Amet Suleymanov‘s first hypertensive crisis occurred in May 2024. Due to high blood pressure, the Crimean had constant nosebleeds, shortness of breath, and often felt dizzy. Now, Amet Suleymanov is also worried about spots that appeared on his body. His skin is covered with rashes, whose cause doctors cannot explain or prevent. They appear and disappear, accompanied by severe itching.

Amet Suleymanov also complained of a new deterioration in vision. Last fall, doctors diagnosed the journalist with retinal angiopathy (damage to the retinal vessels, in which its blood supply is disrupted). Without treatment, angiopathy can lead to blindness.

In July 2024, when the court refused to release Suleymanov from prison, despite the presence of diseases incompatible with imprisonment, lawyer Lilya Gemedzhi noted that his vision problems were caused by “constantly high blood pressure.”

As Crimean Solidarity previously reported, in October last year, it became known that Amet Suleymanov was removed from the queue for heart surgery. It turned out that this happened at the end of 2021 at the initiative of the russian Ministry of Health of Crimea. The family was not informed about this.

The Crimean had been waiting for the operation for at least several years. Before his detention in 2020, he was preparing to have it done in Kyiv. However, after his detention, he stood in line in Crimea to have the operation while he was under house arrest. His wife, Lilya Liumanova, appealed to the administration of the Vladimir prison in the summer of 2024 and asked to operate on her husband as soon as possible. “If the operation is not performed now, the load will go to the second heart valve, and it will be necessary to change not one, but two,” emphasizes Lilya Liumanova. The doctors assured that they had sent a request for the operation to the Moscow cardiac surgery center and were waiting for a response from it. However, no response was received from Moscow.

Recall that in 2021, a russian court sentenced Amet Suleymanov to 12 years in prison in the “Crimean Muslims case.” He was under house arrest for three years due to his health. The journalist suffers from arterial and mitral heart failure. On April 6, 2023, Amet Suleymanov was taken into custody and sent to a detention center. In March 2024, the Frunze District Court in Vladimir refused to release Amet Suleymanov from prison, despite the fact that his diseases are on the list of conditions incompatible with imprisonment.

The Human Rights Center, Memorial, recognized Amet Suleymanov as a political prisoner.

NUJU Information Service