Ukraine gives Türkiye the list of severely ill political prisoners from Crimea to help free them

Elvin Kadyrov, the representative of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for the rights of Crimea residents, gave Türkiye a list of severely ill Russia's political prisoners from Crimea, with a view to their release.

Elvin Kadyrov met with Yalçın Topçu, chief adviser to the Turkish President, and handed the list to him, the Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets reported on Telegram.

At the meeting, the officials especially focused on severely ill political prisoners: Tofik Abdulgaziev, Iryna Danylovych and Amet Suleymanov. They suffer from a wide array of serious diseases that make it impossible for them to serve their sentences in prisons.

Elvin Kadyrov, the representative of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for the rights of Crimea residents, meeting Yalçın Topçu, chief adviser to the Turkish President. Photo by Dmytro Lubinets on Telegram

"The health of Tofik Abdulgaziev is in critical state: he has lost over 10 kg of weight and has been diagnosed with various infectious diseases as well as open tuberculosis. Keeping him in detention for any longer is effectively a death sentence for him," Kadyrov said.

The Commissioner's representative also stressed the importance of finding ways to influence Russia to release all unlawfully convicted political prisoners from Crimea. The list of severely ill political prisoners has been forwarded to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of the talks regarding their release.

Türkiye is an important partner in the efforts to release the Crimean civilians unlawfully detained by Russia, noted Dmytro Lubinets.

As reported earlier, at least 30 Ukrainian journalists are in Russian captivity, including Iryna Danylovych and Amet Suleymanov.