Russian authorities deny hospitalisation to imprisoned citizen journalist Sheikhaliev

Prison medics refused to hospitalize citizen journalist Rustem Sheikhaliev after an examination, "Crimean Solidarity" reports.

"Rustem says that the infirmary staff did not bring the pressure bar to the right mark and in this way it showed normal pressure," quoted the lawyer Lilya Gemeji.

On January 16, he planned to attend the hearing of the appeal against his sentence through via a video call from the Novocherkassk PTDC No. 3. However, he had heavy nosebleeding during the call. He was taken to the infirmary, but then sent back to his cell. The political prisoner informed his defense attorney Lilya Gemeji about this at the next court hearing.

The paramedic who was called to exaimne Sheikhaliev at the last hearing recorded high blood pressure during the nosebleed. Sheikhaliev was given an injection, but the authorities denied hospitalization. He was not given a chance to get an examination or a necessary treatment plan.

Earlier, Rustem Sheikhaliev asked the prison medics to take his electrocardiogram: he suspects that he has heart failure.

On March 27, 2019, in Crimea, in the Kamyanka and Strohanivka microdistricts of Simferopol, a record-scale search campaign took place in the homes of Crimean Tatars. Due to the large amount of case material, the authorities divided the 25 defendants in the case into five groups of five. Almost all the detainees were citizen journalists or public activists.

On November 24, 2022, the Southern District Military Court's presiding judge Vyacheslav Korsakov, together with judges Denis Galkin and Igor Shendrikov, found the defendants guilty of terrorism and an attempted coup. Activists Enver Ametov and Yashar Muedinov were sentenced to 13 years in a high-security prison, and civilian journalists Ruslan Suleimanov, Rustem Sheikhaliev, and Osman Arifmemetov were sentenced to 14 years in prison. The political prisoners will spend four years in prison, and then their freedom of movement will be restricted for another year. The defendants have pleaded not guilty and consider their persecution to be political.