Political prisoner Volodymyr Dudka, who is serving a 14-year sentence in a Russian colony, is seriously ill and deprived of medical care – Ombudsman of Ukraine

The state of health of a citizen of Ukraine Vladimir Dudka, convicted in Russia, has significantly deteriorated, told Lyudmila Denisova, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada. Dudka was accused by FSB investigators of plotting sabotage and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Russian human rights defenders recognized to his political prisoners.

According to Denisova, prisoner Dudka is virtually deprived of the medical care he needs. Relatives can only give him life-saving medicines once every few months.

“Vladimir has been in the medical unit of PKU IK-11 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Stavropol Territory for a month, but antibiotic treatment has not had positive dynamics. His body is covered with rashes, boils and abscesses. In addition, Volodymyr suffers from stomach ailments and constant headaches against the background of high blood pressure, ”Denisova explained.

She appealed to the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, with a demand “to take urgent measures to respect the rights of a citizen of Ukraine – to provide adequate medical care.”

Also, the Ukrainian ombudsman called on the international community, diplomats and representatives of human rights organizations to closely monitor violations of the rights of Ukrainians in the penitentiary institutions of the occupying country. Denisova asked to use “all possible levers of influence for the early return of all Ukrainian political prisoners home.”

In November 2016, the FSB announced the arrest of “Ukrainian saboteurs” in Sevastopol, including Vladimir Dudka. He was charged with Part 1 of Art. 30, item “a” part 2 of Art. 281 (preparation for sabotage as part of an organized group), part 3 of Art. 222.1 (illegal acquisition, storage of explosives or devices by an organized group) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the investigation, the accused, under the leadership of the military intelligence of Ukraine, were going to blow up objects for transmitting radio and television signals and fuel depots of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

According to the staff of the Memorial Human Rights Center, EMERCOM engineer Dudka and another person involved in the criminal case, journalist Aleksey Bessarabov, were prosecuted for being retired Ukrainian officers. According to human rights activists, the charge is based “on torture and falsification of evidence of a crime in the absence of its event.” The verdict was delivered “in violation of the rights to a defense and a fair trial”.

For more than a week after the arrest, the accused were hidden from their relatives and lawyers. Later, they told in detail that at that time the FSB officers tortured them with electric shocks and forced them to confess on camera.

Dudka graduated from the Faculty of Radio Intelligence of the Kaliningrad Higher Naval School, served as an officer in the navy of the USSR, and then in the Ukraine in the Crimea. Since 2011, he worked as a safety engineer in a unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, which was engaged in demining areas where battles were fought during World War II. In 2014, after the annexation of the peninsula, Dudka began working in the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation.