Human rights activists demand immediate hospitalization of unlawfully imprisoned Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych

On March 21, 2023, citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych went on a dry hunger strike in Russian-occupied Crimea as she was not given medical care. The same day, the journalist fainted while being transported to the “Feodosia City Court” for studying the files of the criminal case. On December 28, 2022, the occupying power sentenced Iryna Danylovych to seven years in prison and a fine of RUB 50,000 in the fabricated case of “storage of explosives.” 

Iryna Danylovych is a nurse and civil activist from Feodosia. She cooperated with INzhyr media outlet and the Crimean Process human rights project, defended the interests of healthcare workers on the peninsula: she joined an independent trade union, wrote a lot about the violation of their rights, for example, about underpayments when dealing with COVID-19 patients. 

After the abduction on April 29, 2022, imprisonment, and the fabrication of the criminal case, Iryna Danylovych almost lost her hearing, constantly has headaches, problems with coordination of movements, and believes that she had at least one micro stroke in prison. Because of this, she is not able to finish studying the files of the court hearings, in which she previously discovered several forgeries and falsifications. 

Danylovych stated that she equated the court’s intention to complete the process of studying the files urgently, without taking into account her health condition, with torture. The journalist demands an end to the ill-treatment, refused to study the case files until she recovers, and officially went on a dry hunger strike. 

According to Bronislav Danylovych, the father of the imprisoned journalist, the pre-trial detention center administration issued documents stating that his daughter was examined by a specialist and that her health condition does not prevent her from studying the case files. 

On March 21, 2023, Iryna Danylovych fainted while being transported to the “Feodosia City Court”, but an ambulance was not called for her. Also, in December 2022, during the debates in the “court”, she felt bad but an emergency doctor who arrived in court falsified the conclusion, noting that Danylovych voluntarily refused to be hospitalized. 

We call for the immediate hospitalization of citizen journalist Iryna Danylovych who has not received any medical care in the pre-trial detention center for five months. All this time she experiences suffering and physical pain. Without urgent and comprehensive treatment, Danylovych’s disease can lead to death, as it already happened to Crimean political prisoners Kostiantyn Shyring and Dzhemil Hafarov. 

We demand the release of unlawfully convicted journalist Iryna Danylovych and the end to politically motivated prosecution for her civic and journalistic activities. 

Signed by:

Human Rights Centre ZMINA 

Crimean Process 

Human Rights Center “Action” 

CrimeaSOS 

Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union 

Association of Relatives of the Kremlin Political Prisoners 

Crimean Human Rights Group 

PLATFORM FOR RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS 

Regional Center for Human Rights 

Kharkiv Institute for Social Research 

Postypovyi Hurt Frankivtsiv 

Institute of Mass Information  

Institute for Peace and Common Ground 

National Union of Journalists of Ukraine 

Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group 

PEN Ukraine 

Human Rights House Crimea  

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group 

“Almenda” Civic Education Center

Kharkiv Anticorruption Center

Center for Civil Liberties

Fundametal Research Support Fund

Media Initiative for Human Rights