Russia: Hunger-striking filmmaker’s health satisfactory
A woman holds a poster reading “Oleg Sentsov is on hunger strike for the 81st day. His mother lodged a petition for pardon on July 17, 2018, Where’s the answer?” during a one-person picket in support of the jailed Ukrainian filmmaker in front of Russian President administration entrance in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Image: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s prison system is contradicting claims about the worsening condition of Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker imprisoned on a terrorism conviction who has been on a hunger strike for 90 days.
Sentsov is demanding that he and 64 other Ukrainians who he considers political prisoners be released. The case has attracted considerable international attention, with Western nations campaigning for his release.
Oleg Sentsov in 2015. Image: AP Photo, file
His lawyer Dmitry Dinze said this week that Sentsov has become increasingly frail and now has a low hemoglobin level.
The Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement Saturday that Sentsov is being given a nutritious formula daily and “as of today, no deficit in body mass or worsening of his health has been observed.”
Sentsov, an opponent of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, was sentenced to 20 years in 2015. NVG
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