EU demands immediate medical assistance for journalist illegally convicted in Crimea

The EU representation in Ukraine is concerned about the health of journalist Iryna Danylovych, who was illegally convicted in temporarily occupied Crimea, and called for immediate medical assistance. Source: statement of the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine on Twitter, as reported by European Pravda. Quote: "[The EU Delegation] in Ukraine is concerned about the health situation of Iryna Danylovych, a Ukrainian journalist unlawfully jailed by Russian occupying authorities in Crimea," the message said.

Details: Danylovych, the delegation noted, went on a hunger strike to protest against the injustice and the failure to provide her with the necessary medical care.

Iryna Danylovych is a public figure from the Crimean city of Feodosia. She worked as a nurse in a boarding house in Koktebel, cooperated with the Crimean Process project [an initiative that brings together legal experts and ordinary activists to assess court hearings of politically motivated cases in Crimea - ed] and defended the interests of medical workers on the occupied peninsula. She also wrote a lot about violations of their rights.

The Ministry of Justice of Russia included her in the media "foreign agents" list. On 28 December 2022, a court in temporarily occupied Crimea sentenced Danylovych to seven years of imprisonment for allegedly storing explosives in a case for glasses. Danylovych reported that the FSB of Russia threw explosives at her for refusing to sign a confession of treason and cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine.

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On 22 March 2023, Danylovych announced a dry hunger strike until she was medically assessed and treated, or until she died. She reported that her hearing has been on a decline for four months, and she hears a constant ringing in her ear, which causes her unbearable pain. Her condition worsened after being transferred from the Simferopol pre-trial detention centre to the "court" in Feodosia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called for immediate hospitalisation of Danylovych, warning that her illness could lead to death without urgent and complex treatment, as it already happened with political prisoners Kostiantyn Shyring and Dzemil Hafarov.

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