A Crimean activist, sentenced to seven years in prison, has spoken about “traceless torture”

Crimean activist Irina Danilovich has spoken about “traceless torture” at Penal Colony No. 7 in Zelenokumsk (Stavropol Krai, southern Russia). She wrote about this in an appeal to the Vice President of the European Parliament, Pina Picierno, reports Krym.Realii.

According to Danilovich, the colony is lit round the clock by extremely bright electric lights, which are never switched off, day or night. “Even eye masks do not help—the women suffer from eye and head pain and cannot sleep,” her appeal states.

Prisoners in the colony are also subjected to acoustic violence. Loudspeakers in the barracks are switched on at maximum volume from six in the morning, causing suffering to the inmates. Danilovich says it is especially hard for her to endure these conditions, as her hearing organs are inflamed and she is in constant physical pain.

Earlier, Danilovich reported that detainees at Colony No. 7 are forced to stand in the yard for many hours in all kinds of weather, and that living conditions in the colony are dire. According to her father, there are only five water taps for several hundred people, there is no soap in the canteen, cockroaches often get into the food, the cells are very cold so people wear outdoor clothing indoors, and the roofs leak.

Danilovich sent her appeal to Pina Picierno as Picierno is her “moral patron.” The politician has also previously spoken in support of the activist. Danilovich is asking people to write to the Russian Federation’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova, regarding the conditions in Colony No. 7.

• Irina Danilovich is a Crimean activist who worked as a nurse in a care home in Koktebel. She collaborated with the outlet INzhir media and the human rights project “Crimean Process,” defending the interests of healthcare workers on the peninsula and writing extensively about violations of their rights, including wage shortfalls for those working with COVID patients. In June 2022, the Ministry of Justice listed Danilovich as a “foreign agent” media outlet.
• Danilovich was detained in April 2022. According to law enforcement, she was allegedly found with 200 grams of explosives in the lining of an eyeglass case. She was charged under Article 222.1, Part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code for unlawful actions involving explosives or explosive devices. Danilovich and her lawyers reported that the explosives were planted on her and that FSB officers used physical violence against her. Later that year, in December, she was sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of 50,000 rubles (about US$560).
• Before her sentencing, Danilovich was held in a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO), where her health deteriorated—she lost hearing in her left ear. Doctors did not give Danilovich her test results, and the SIZO management refused to pass on her prescribed medication. Independent doctors believe she had acute otitis. She also has neurological problems and brain damage—possibly, she suffered a stroke in the SIZO. In the colony, she has been denied medical care.