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Jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Sentsov turns down ECHR appeal to stop hunger strike

According to the lawyer, Sentsov said "reminded the Court that his appeal, qualified by the ECHR as a priority one, has remained on hold for already several years"

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, sentenced to 20 years behind bars in Russia for plotting terror attacks, has dismissed an appeal from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to stop a hunger strike, his lawyer Dmitry Dinze told TASS on Thursday.

Earlier reports said the ECHR had requested information about Sentsov’s health and abidance by its Convention in connection with the hunger strike, and asked Sentsov to stop it.

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Filmmaker Sentsov must initiate pardon process himself, Kremlin says

According to the lawyer, Sentsov said ‘no’ and "reminded the Court that his appeal, qualified by the ECHR as a priority one, has remained on hold for already several years".

Earlier, Ukrainian parliament’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Lyudmila Denisova suggested on her Facebook page that Sentsov could be forced to eat. However, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service’s office in the Yamalo-Nenets Region dismissed the allegations, and said medics were monitoring his state of health. The inmate’s condition is assessed as satisfactory, and he receives supportive care.

Russian Human Rights Ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova said earlier that she was daily receiving reports on Sentsov’s state of health. She said Sentsov receives all necessary vitamins through IV drip two times a day. The ombudsperson appealed to the Federal Penitentiary Service to admit "those medics that his lawyer or relatives will recommend so that they could be trusted as to his health condition".

Sentsov case

In late August 2015, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, best known for his 2011 film Gamer, was found guilty of terrorism in Russia. The North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced him to 20 years behind bars on charges of setting up a terrorist cell in Crimea and plotting terror attacks. In the spring of 2014, the group’s members carried out two terror attacks in Simferopol: they set on fire the offices of Crimea’s Russian Community public organization and a regional office of the United Russia party.

Ombudspersons’ activities

On June 9, Putin and Poroshenko in a telephone call made an agreement that the two countries’ human rights ombudspersons would visit Russian convicts in Ukraine and Ukrainian convicts in Russia. On June 18, Moskalkova and Denisova held a meeting in Moscow, discussing a memorandum on visiting convicts.

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