Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Taisia Osipova being "slowly killed"


RFE/RL has an article on Russian rights activist Taisia Osipova's third birthday in prison: 
Osipova, who has a 7-year-old daughter, was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison for the possession and attempted sale of heroin.
The ruling sparked an outcry and was denounced by critics as a setup aimed at putting pressure on her husband's political activities.
She got a retrial in 2012 after then-President Dmitry Medvedev criticized the verdict as "too severe."
But her sentence was trimmed by just two years, although prosecutors had recommended that she serve a total of four years.
Osipova has complained of being subjected to humiliation by officials at her prison near Tver, including being held in a crowded cell and routinely barred from meeting with her lawyer.
According to Fomchenkov, she is also being denied proper medical treatment for diabetes. She is also reported to be suffering from pancreatitis.
Her health, he says, is rapidly deteriorating.
"She is not receiving suitable treatment. As a person with diabetes, she should have appropriate living conditions and diet," Fomchenkov says. "This is impossible in prison. There is no endocrinologist there. In three years of detention she has seen an endocrinologist only twice, although she should be under constant monitoring by a specialist. This is not happening. They are slowly killing her."

See also in this blog: Taisia Osipova sentenced to 8 years 

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