Prosecutor requested 4 years of imprisonment for Balukh

Razdolnenskiy Court in Crimea hold a hearing on July 2, 2018, on the second criminal case against the Ukrainian political prisoner Vladimir Balukh accused of allegedly detention center’s work disorganization.

During the meeting, the prosecutor requested 4 years of imprisonment for Ukrainian.

Activist from the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Crimea, Mikhail Batrak was at the court and informed about it.

«During the debate, Prosecutor Shmelev requesred 4 years imprisonment for Vladimir according to a new criminal case, and in total, together with the previous criminal case there are 6 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony and 10 thousand rubles fine. The defense asked to justify the defendant due to lack of evidence in a crime charged to Vladimir,» Mr. Butrak wrote on Facebook.

Ukrainian lawyer Olga Dinze stated that Vladimir Balukh’s actions are a legitimate defense and not a disorder of infirmary’s work.

«All the defendant’s actions should be regarded as a legitimate defense, which had not disorganized the detention center activity,» Dinze said during the debate.

Vladimir Balukh last spoke at the meeting about the only trial process’s goal as to punish a person for freethinking.

«This trial evidences one thing only that its purpose is to punish a person for freethinking, for the love to country. You should add the article for this system hatred, then I will write a confession with pleasure, and you may even charge me a life term. It will be much fairer than what is happening here. Only respecting those people who come to support me here, I participate in this mockery,» said Balukh.

The next meeting on pronouncing a sentence to Vladimir Balukh is scheduled on Thursday, July 5.

As to the website «15 minutes», a new criminal case against Vladimir Balukh was brought in August 2017. After Vladimir Balukh and his lawyer filed a complaint with the police about the illegal actions of Razdolnenskiy detention center head Valeriy Tkachenko, who insulted and hit the Ukrainian, Tkachenko filed a complaint against the Ukrainian in response.

As it is known, on March 19, Ukrainian political prisoner Vladimir Balukh announced an indefinite hunger strike demanding to cancel the illegal sentence of imprisonment for 3 years and 5 months in the colony-settlement. After a month of hunger strike, he agreed to eat 2 glasses of oatmeal and 50-70 grams of rye biscuits a day. On June 22, Vladimir Balukh decided to intensify his hunger strike and drink only water. The Ukrainian is already starving for the 106^th day.