Political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh, who has been on hunger strike for roughly half a year, is suffering from severe chest pain just a few days after reportedly being beaten in a Russian-controlled Crimean prison.
Balukh complained of the chest pain during a visit by Kliment, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
“I saw Volodya (Balukh), I spoke with him, including about his health, and passed him letters of support,” Kliment told Radio Svoboda on Sept. 18. “I can only say that Volodya is complaining of heart pain, and sometimes the pain is so severe that he chokes and feels like vomiting.”
On Sept. 14, Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis assembly and a former political prisoner himself, told Radio Svoboda’s Krym.Realii project that Balukh had been “taken from his cell, severely beaten, and threatened with elimination.”
Later, Chiygoz told the Gordon news site that prison guards had beaten Balukh out of annoyance at his pro-Ukrainian position, but their formal reason was insubordination.
According to Chiygoz’s unnamed sources, the detention center warden and several guards entered Balukh’s cell and demanded he clean up the area. Balukh refused and got into an argument with the prison administrators.
They then decided to take Balukh to “the pit” — administrative segregation — but along the way led him into a storage room and demanded he get on his knees. When Balukh refused, they lay him on the floor, handcuffed his arms behind his back, and beat him.
“In part, they beat him in the area of his liver, his spine, and his head,” Chiygoz told Gordon.
Afterwards, the guards returned Balukh to his cell, where inmates who cooperate with the prison administration had cleaned and an employee of the prison had photographed the newly clean cell.
Chiygoz suggested that meant Moscow wanted photographs or higher-ups were coming and needed to be shown that Balukh was being held in acceptable conditions.
In the immediate aftermath of the beating, Balukh reportedly suffered pain in his liver and head.
After Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, Balukh, a Crimean farmer, faced frequent harassment for his pro-Ukraine stance and for flying a Ukrainian flag over his homestead.
In December 2016, the Russian security service in occupied Crimea arrested Balukh for allegedly storing ammunition and explosives at his home. He was sentenced to prison on the charge, but the verdict was later overturned.
Then, in spring 2018, the Kremlin-appointed authorities opened another case against Balukh for allegedly attacking the head of the temporary detention facility where he was being held. Balukh insisted that the man assaulted, humiliated, and insulted him to provoke a response.
In July, a Crimean court found Balukh guilty of both crimes and sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of 10,000 rubles ($150) cumulatively.
Balukh has been on hunger strike since March 19. The dissident does not eat and consumes only water, tea, honey, and liquid produced by boiling down oatmeal porridge.
Both United States Department of State and the European Union have called on Russia to release Balukh.
