Crimea occupation authorities widely using punitive psychiatry - Ukraine at OSCE

Russia has been massively applying punitive psychiatry against Crimean residents speaking up against the occupation of the peninsula as 49 such cases have already been registered.

That’s according to Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, who spoke at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"Nariman Dzhelyalov is forced to undergo a so-called 'psychological and psychiatric examination.' And this is yet another example of Russia applying punitive psychiatry in relation to Crimean residents opposing the occupation,” Tsymbaliuk said.

The diplomat recalled the first such case, of August 2016, involving Crimean Tatar’s Ilmi Umerov who later described his forcible inpatient treatment at a mental clinic as "one continuous torture."

The Ukrainian ambassador informed foreign diplomats, referring to the Crimean Human Rights Protection Group, that in at least 49 criminal cases launched on political grounds, Russia-controlled “courts” in Crimea would rule that the targeted Crimean activists undergo compulsory examination in a mental clinic.

As reported earlier, lawyer Mykola Polozov said First Deputy Chairman of Crimean Tatar’s Mejlis, Nariman Dzhelyalov, illegally detained by the occupation authorities in Crimea on trumped-up “sabotage” charges, was moved on October 7 from a local pre-trial detention center to a psychiatric hospital. His compulsory examination will last from 21 to 28 days.

The lawyer reminded that earlier Dzhelyalov protested the psychiatric examination citing the lack of grounds for its appointment.

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