Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov has recovered after hungerstriking, his defense lawyer Dmitry Dinze says.
“When it comes to his health state, now there is nothing to worry about. He has gained weight up to 90 kilograms and he feels fine The only problem is that he has chronic diseases, which periodically make themselves felt. The [after-hungerstriking] rehabilitation process was successful. But keep in mind that this is a specific feature of his organism. Oleg’s body managed to recover, but it does not mean that the same will happen to other people. He had some luck,” RFE/RL quotes Dinze.
According to him, Sentsov’s emotional and psychological state is ‘excellent’, and he is busy with ‘creating’.
The charge was based on the testimony of Alexey Chyrny and Gennady Afanasiev. In court Afanasiev withdrew evidence saying that he had been tortured in jail. It is impossible to swap Sentsov for any Russian prisoner in Ukraine, because after the annexation of Crimea Russia started considering the Ukrainian director a citizen of Russia.
Sentsov, who demands that the Russian authorities release more than 60 Ukrainians jailed in Russia and Crimea, went on hunger strike on May, 14. The 42-year-old prisoner who has never asked president Vladimir Putin for pardon. He stopped his 145-day hungerstrike in early October. He experienced serious health complications in the Russian penal colony.
In 2018, Oleg Sentsov was declared winner of the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.