Repressive russian authorities using failure to provide medical care to Iryna Danylovych as torture

As the Crimean Tatar Resource Center reports, the Crimean human rights defender and citizen journalist, Iryna Danylovych, illegally convicted by russia, complains of constant heartaches and headaches. According to the latest data, Iryna Danylovych lost hearing in her left ear after suffering from otitis media. In addition, she complains that the left side of her body is numb, and this is a residual symptom after the microstroke suffered by the journalist.

The transfer of medicines from relatives and volunteers, claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is limited to one pill only. Obtaining medical care is also becoming more difficult: in order to get all the necessary medicines, Iryna Danylovych needs prescriptions from russian doctors, which can only be obtained after being transported for examination.

“The woman is transported to the doctors in the city of Mineralnye Vody, which is located 300 km from the colony, in the cells of vehicles used for transportation of prisoners, which leads to even greater suffering,” the Center reports.

As earlier reported, in 2022, the Crimean citizen journalist and human rights defender Iryna Danylovych was kidnapped by FSB officers. Later, the results of the search were falsified. She was falsely accused of keeping explosives in her eyeglass case. She was not provided with medical care in connection with acute otitis media for a long time in the pre-trial detention center. As a result, the activist lost hearing in one ear, but she never received treatment.

In August 2024, after the arrival of Danylovych to serve her sentence in the colony, the convict turned to the infirmary because of pain in her ears and head, but in response, the doctor Lidia Morozova said that the pain would go away by itself when Danylovych finally became deaf. Thus, according to human rights organizations in Ukraine, russian correctional officers use prisoners’ illnesses as torture to improve their obedient behavior. On August 1, 2024, the father of the activist, Bronislav Danylovych, passed away, but the daughter was denied the opportunity to see her father on his last journey.

NUJU Information Service