Russians leave political prisoner without medical assistance after surgery

Emir-Usein Kuku, a Crimean Tatar political prisoner held in a Russian penal colony, has received no medical advice following bowel surgery.

Source: the ZMINA human rights centre, citing Meriem Kuku, wife of the imprisoned human rights activist

Quote: "He was taken back to prison from hospital too early. After surgery he should have been kept under medical supervision for at least 10-14 days. In prison he had a few injections of ascorbic acid, and his stitches were removed."

Details: Emir-Usein’s diagnosis requires him to follow a special diet, but no provision has been made for this in the Russian prison where he is held. He has not been given any information about the operation or any medical advice.

Emir-Usein’s wife says he has effectively been left to deal with his post-surgery problems in prison on his own, with no other option than to ask his family to search for information about his illness and advice on the internet.

Background: On 21 June, Emir-Usein Kuku was taken to hospital from a prison in the city of Salavat in Bashkortostan, Russia, with an attack of kidney pain. The diagnosis revealed that vital functions of his intestine were impaired.

Emir-Usein had emergency surgery on 23 June. His wife says he was later discharged from Salavat city hospital and transferred to a hospital in the city of Ufa in a satisfactory condition.

Note: Emir-Usein Kuku is a Crimean Tatar human rights defender and activist. Along with fellow Crimeans Vadym Siruk, Muslim Aliev, Enver Bekirov, Refat Alimov and Arsen Dzhepparov, Kuku was a defendant in the so-called Yalta case concerning the Islamic political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. [Russia regards Hizb ut-Tahrir, meaning "Party of Liberation", as a terrorist organisation - ed.] The first four defendants were arrested on 11 February 2016. Emir-Usein Kuku, a member of the Contact Group for Human Rights, was among them.

On 12 November 2019, the Southern District Court in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, sentenced the six defendants in the case. Muslim Aliev was sentenced to 19 years of imprisonment in a maximum-security prison, Emir-Usein Kuku and Vadym Siruk were sentenced to 12 years, Arsen Dzhepparov to 7 years, and Refat Alimov to 8 years.

On 25 June 2020, the Military Court of Appeal in the city of Vlasikha, Moscow Oblast, upheld the verdict.

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