Russia withholds information about condition of Crimean political prisoner Ziza after hunger strike

Russia does not provide any information about the state of health of Bohdan Ziza, the Crimean political prisoner and artist, who was on hunger strike for 17 days. Ziza's relatives only know that Bohdan was being transferred to Novocherkassk, near Rostov, Russia. Source: Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner

Quote: "Relatives of the Crimean artist Bohdan Ziza, unjustly sentenced to 15 years in prison, are concerned about his health after a 17-day hunger strike, which ended on 27 June.

The family has no contact with him. Consequently, it is not known where exactly the guy is being held, under what conditions or whether he is being provided with the necessary medical assistance," Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner said. Earlier, human rights activists reported that Bohdan Ziza had lost 10 kg and was isolated in a separate cell with stricter supervision.

28-year-old Crimean Tatar Bohdan Ziza poured blue and yellow paint on the "administration" of Yevpatoria in May 2022, for which the occupiers imprisoned him.

In early June, he was "sentenced" to 15 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony. On June 19, Bohdan Ziza began a protest hunger strike, demanding to be stripped of his imposed Russian citizenship and to release all Ukrainian political prisoners. WeBogdanZiza, the human rights project supporting the political prisoner, published letters that Bogdan managed to send from prison.

The activist wrote that he felt well at the beginning of the hunger strike but had headaches. He was trying to sleep more, read and go for walks. "Everyone who is not lazy tries to prove to me that no one needs my hunger strike; everyone doesn't care.

I fully understand that my demands are unattainable here, now, but that is not my goal either. The main thing is to draw attention to the problem of political prisoners. The news that reaches me from pre-trial detention centre 2 in Simferopol is simply terrible.

I am asking society to pay attention to this, not to be silent and to spread the word. This will help! During the nine months that I spent in pre-trial detention centre 1 in Crimea, I saw first-hand how publicity about the ill-treatment of prisoners of war helped to improve their conditions," Ziza wrote a few months ago.

The political prisoner refused food from 10 to 27 June. During the hunger strike, Bohdan reported dizziness and weakness, which worsened. He wrote in his last letter:

"Weakness is taking its toll, most of all in my arms and legs. I feel dizzy from any movement. I hardly get out of bed and I rarely go for walks.

I only drink water from the tap, purified by a filter. For the last few days, my body has been rejecting it, so I drink it without wanting to because I have to. I sleep intermittently; for some reason I wake up at night, but I try to sleep during the day because living in solitary confinement without the possibility of something to distract me is much harder at night.

Some say that I am a hero in vain. Yes, I realise that I am a small grain of sand in the raging storm that is happening right now. But the more of us, such grains of sand, the louder we speak, the more influence we have."

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