Metropolitan Klyment of the OCU: Ukrainian citizen Zakhtey, convicted in Crimea, was thrown into a punishment cell
About it on the air of the project Radio Liberty Radio Crimea. On October 6, Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and Crimea, who managed to meet with Zakhtey the day before.
"We have received very disturbing news about the prisoner who is in the Simferopol penal colony – Andriy Zakhtey. There is an ambiguous attitude towards him in Ukraine, but he is a citizen of Ukraine. I had a meeting with him yesterday. Yesterday, for disobeying the prison authorities, he was put in a "pit" for 10 days – a cold punishment cell in the basement. They put him in there just because he didn't go out to exercise. But I think that the point is not that he did not go out to exercise, but that he speaks only Ukrainian all the time in the colony and basically does not take off the T-shirt "Ukraine Above All", where Crimea is part of Ukraine on a yellow and blue flag," Bishop Klyment said.
He also noted that Zakhtey had lung problems in the summer, so his imprisonment in the punishment cell can have serious health implications.
Information about Zakhtey's transfer to the punishment cell was also confirmed by his wife Oksana Zakhtey on Facebook.
"Today, Andriy was placed in a "pit" for 10 days, for allegedly violating the regime. I don't know the details, but it's good that I at least reported them through the telecom zone. As always - "Everything will be fine, I will survive everything", and I am worried. Lots of chronic sores, basement, wet, cold. Only recently, the examination was done, hence no comforting news about his health," she said.
There is no confirmation of this information from the colony's management or the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, which is accountable to Crimean Penitentiary institutions after the occupation of the peninsula.
In August 2016, the Russian Federal Security Service announced the detention in the occupied Crimea of a group of "Ukrainian saboteurs" who allegedly prepared terrorist attacks on the peninsula. The detainees were held for some time in the Moscow pre-trial detention center in Lefortovo and later returned to Crimea.
Russian intelligence services stated that Yevhen Panov and Andriy Zakhtey, who were detained in this case, planned to carry out terrorist attacks on the tourist and social infrastructure of the peninsula.
Zakhtiy signed a pre-trial agreement with the investigation. He was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in a high-security penal colony, as well as a fine of 220 thousand rubles (about 105 thousand hryvnias).
The Ukrainian authorities rejected the Russian accusations against the Ukrainians and called them a provocation of the Russian special services.
