21/01/2022 09:18

Commissioner: Yuriy Merzliy, a cancer patient of Ukraine, has been illegally detained in torture chambers in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region for almost 4 years

Yuriy Merzliy, a citizen of Ukraine, who is being unjustifiably detained in the Krasnolutsk Correctional Colony №19 in the temporarily occupied Luhansk Region, suffers from diabetes and needs immediate treatment. This was announced by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Lyudmyla Denisova.

Yuri was illegally detained on March 22, 2018 on the way to Luhansk, where he was returning with his wife and son. After searches of the apartment, he was accused of "collaborating with the SBU."

According to the representatives of the occupation administration, the man "carried out intelligence activities" on the territory of the so-called "republic" and passed information about local "law enforcement agencies".

Yuriy spent fifteen days in the basement of the so-called "Ministry of State Security" in temporarily occupied Luhansk, where he was brutally tortured and later transferred to the Luhansk pre-trial detention center.

On July 26, 2019, the so-called "Military Court of the People's Republic of China" sentenced Yuri Merzly to 12 years in prison for "treason."

"Yuriy has a group 2 disability: on the eve of his detention he underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor of the intestine, and also suffers from type 2 diabetes. Despite his health problems, he is not receiving any medical care, and access to blood sugar tests and vital medicines has been restricted recently, ”the Ombudsman said.

All the above actions against Yuri Merzly are violations not only of Ukrainian law but also of international law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the Rules of War, the Additional Protocols to the 1977 Geneva Conventions and the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. year.

The Commissioner appealed to the ICRC leadership in Ukraine to pay an urgent visit to Yuri Merzly and facilitate his immediate release.

Lyudmila Denisova also asked the OSCE Co-ordinator in the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group, Charlotte Relander, to intervene personally to raise the issue of his release.