"He's barely able to walk": Crimean Tatar political prisoner has lost 30 kg in Russian colony

Crimean Tatar political prisoner Yashar Shykhametov has lost 30 kg since his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony and is almost unable to walk due to joint destruction.

Source: Crimean Solidarity Human Rights Movement, citing the prisoner’s wife Liliia Shykhametova

Details: Shykhametov had been held in a medical facility in Saratov, but in early summer he was transferred to prison before doctors could provide the necessary treatment.

He is now serving his sentence in Colony IK-37 in the village of Yaya, Kemerovo Oblast. Liliia said her husband has been granted additional two-hour daytime rest, a hard bed and personal slippers.

The political prisoner has been exempted from work and is scheduled for treatment and disability certification.

Shykhametov said he suffers from worn intervertebral discs, destruction of hip and knee joints, heart problems, suspected diabetes, poor hearing and vision, high blood pressure and kidney stones.

"When walking or sitting, I feel severe pain. That’s why I hardly walk," Yashar said. "If I walk, it’s with crutches. It takes me two and a half hours to cover a distance of 50 metres. After walking, everything hurts badly, and I have to take painkillers. Because of stomach ulcers, the medicine makes my stomach hurt."

Shykhametov has appealed to the administration of Colony IK-37 to be placed in hospital for treatment and disability confirmation. 

He also said that if he were given a wheelchair, it would increase his mobility and reduce the pain he experiences because of walking.

Russian security forces opened a criminal case against Yashar Shykhametov and five other Crimean Tatars in February 2021 after mass raids in several districts of the peninsula.

The political prisoner was accused of involvement in the activities of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is banned in Russia but legal in Ukraine and many other countries.

Russian secret services claim that at his job in a café, Shykhametov engaged in "ideological work" and "anti-constitutional activity" by attending gatherings and recruiting new supporters.

The main evidence in the case came from "secret witnesses". According to Yashar’s lawyer, they may not even have known the political prisoner.

Quote from lawyer Oleksii Ladin: "The answers to the prosecution’s questions [during interrogation] were standard, but when questioned by the defence, the witnesses replied: 'I don’t remember'. It is obvious to us that the secret witnesses did not know Shykhametov for a number of objective reasons. They claim to have gone to his café for two years, but they couldn’t remember what it was called, when the name was written in large letters above the entrance."

Details: In September 2022, the Russians sentenced Yashar Shykhametov to 11 years in a penal colony, with the first four years under harsher conditions.

For reference: Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamic political party that Russia has declared a terrorist organisation. Many Crimean Tatar political prisoners are accused of involvement in this movement, with fabricated evidence.

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