Russian Federation: Imprisoned Nurse May Fully Lose Hearing
Irina Danilovich (Iryna Danylovych) is a civic activist and a human rights defender who was exposing problems of the health care system in Russian-occupied Crimea. She was very vocal and publicly condemned cases of politically motivated prosecutions, enforced disappearances and the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and other activists.
On 29 April 2022, Irina Danilovich was abducted in Koktebel, Crimea, by members of the Russian Federation’s security forces. Her fate and whereabouts were unknown to her family and lawyer until 11 May 2022. According to Irina Danilovich, she was repeatedly threatened with secret execution, and spent most of this time locked up in a basement in inhumane conditions. She was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment by her captors who were trying to force her to “confess” to state treason. She claims that after they failed to achieve this, , her captors tampered with her personal belongings where they planted the explosives that were then used to prosecute and imprison her.
On 28 December 2022, Irina Danilovich was sentenced by the de facto Feodosia City Court to seven years of prison and a fine of 50,000 Roubles (US$ 720) under Article 222.1(1) of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal purchase, transfer, storage and transportation of explosive substances or explosive devices). The trial against her was fraught with numerous fair trial violations. Her conviction under Russian criminal law is in itself a violation of international humanitarian law applicable to occupied territories, as is her transfer to a colony in Russia.
In March 2023, Irina Danilovich went on a hunger strike to protest the denial of adequate healthcare. As a result, she was taken to hospital where initial examinations were conducted concluding that she required further medical checks and urgent treatment. Nonetheless, she was taken back to the detention centre SIZO-1 in the Crimean capital Simferopol, and received no further treatment. Her health condition is continuingly deteriorating, and she has already partially deaf as a result.
The de facto Supreme Court of Crimea considered her appeal and in June 2023 reduced her sentence by one month, but upheld her unfounded conviction. However, during the appeal, the court dismissed her request to postpone the hearing on account of her poor health, and insisted that she was fit to attend the hearing. Irina Danilovich had to attend the hearing online despite the difficulties in following the proceeding due to her hearing problems.
People who have opposed the Russian occupation and illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the human rights violations committed there since 2014 have faced persecution, including harassment, intimidation, prosecution under trumped-up charges and enforced disappearances.