Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, a political prisoner jailed in Russia after being subjected to a sham trial, is to end his hunger strike, according to a letter his lawyer Dmitry Dindze passed to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta on Oct. 5.
Sentsov wrote that he was ending his hunger strike, which has gone on for more than 145 days, because of the extremely critical condition of his health.
Earlier on Oct. 5 Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service published a statement that Sentsov had decided to stop the hunger strike and “choose life.”
However, Sentsov said that he stopped the hunger strike because the Russian authorities were planning to start force-feeding him due to his critical condition.
“Nobody was taking my opinion into an account anymore,” Sentsov wrote. “I was considered incapable of assessing the state of my health and the danger to my life.”
In August 2015, after a year-long sham trial, Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison for allegedly “organizing a terrorist group and plotting attacks.”
Sentsov started hunger striking in May to draw the world’s attention to the 70 other Ukrainian political prisoners being kept in Russian jails.
However, the Kremlin started to give signals that it would let its hostage die in prison as a lesson to other political prisoners.
European Union leaders, politicians, and celebrities around the globe have long been calling on the Kremlin to free Sentsov.
But Russia has ignored them. It has several times transferred Sentsov to different prisons and tried to force him to stop his hunger strike, and refused to exchange him for Russian citizens jailed in Ukraine, saying it considers Sentsov, a native of Crimea, a Russian citizen.
“I fought for 145 days, lost 20 kilograms of weight, damaged my own body, but still haven’t achieved my goal. Glory to Ukraine!” Sentsov wrote.
The Kyiv Post tried to confirm the authenticity of the letter, but neither Dindze nor Sentsov’s cousin, Natalia Kaplan, were available for comment.
However, Dindze confirmed to RFE/RE’s Russian-language news website Current Time TV that Sentsov would end his hungers strike from Oct. 6
Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudswoman Lyudmila Denisova in a post on Facebook on Oct. 5 demanded to visit Sentsov and said that he should be examined by Ukrainian doctors.
