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Crimean Tatar human rights defender Emir-Usein Kuku is nearly unable to move due to a tumour on his leg, reports Crimean Solidarity.
According to Kuku’s wife, Merve, he discovered the growth several years ago. At that time, he had an ultrasound scan, which suggested it was a Baker’s cyst (a hernia at the knee, also known as a popliteal or knee cyst). Since then, the growth has increased in size and continues to grow. Because of the pain, he is now almost completely immobilised, and has yet to receive medical help.
“Because of the growth in his knee pit, Emir-Usein sometimes cannot stand up, [including] to perform prayers. There have never been any further examinations or treatment. I doubt a single antibiotic tablet can be called treatment,” his spouse told us.
In addition, Kuku’s eyesight has deteriorated significantly, and he is suffering from pain in his heart, kidneys, and lower back. He recently had a severe bout of angina. He had a persistent cough and high fever for several days, but timely treatment at the penal colony was not given—medical care was only provided four days after symptoms appeared because it was a weekend in the infirmary.
In July 2023, the political prisoner had intestinal surgery in the prison hospital in Ufa, a large city in the Urals. Doctors removed some adhesions from Emir-Usein, but the precise part of the intestine remains unknown.
On 12 November 2019, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Kuku to 12 years in a strict regime penal colony on charges of participating in the activities of an organisation recognised as terrorist (Part 2, Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code), and preparing to violently overthrow the constitutional order (Article 278 with application of Part 1, Article 30 of the Criminal Code). On 26 June 2020, the appellate court upheld the verdict unchanged.
Kuku is serving his sentence in Penal Colony No. 16 in the city of Salavat (Bashkortostan, central Russia). In 2021, he was put on preventive monitoring in the colony.