The European Court of Human Rights was asked to intervene after a recent court hearing needed to be adjourned because Hryb was suffering acute stomach pains, and after the medical specialist treating the young man since early childhood warned that the conditions in the prison where he is being held could lead to haemorrhaging endangering his life.
Hryb was just 19 when the Russian FSB abducted him from Belarus and imprisoned him in a SIZO [remand prison] in Krasnodar pending trial on trumped up terrorism charges, according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
Russia is ignoring the fact that Hryb has very serious blood circulation issues, including portal hypertension, and needs specialized care and appropriate conditions. Neither are provided in a Russian SIZO.
Professor Vasyl Prytula from the Bogomolets National Medical University, issued a new opinion, based solely on the readings taken at a consultative clinic in Rostov (where Hryb is on ‘trial’). Russia has flouted a previous order from the European Court of Human Rights and has not allowed Prytula or any other Ukrainian doctors to examine the young man.
Prytula’s assessment was deeply worrying. He found, among other issues, that Hryb’s portal hypertension, hypersplenism, including enlargement of the spleen, are developing, and he is now suffering from liver cirrhosis and reduced ability for blood coagulation (heightening the threat of blood haemorrhages).
He believes it possible that Hryb is suffering from an inflamed ulcer in the colon or stomach. This can only heighten the danger of haemorrhaging in the digestive tract, stomach or duodenum, with any of these posing “a critical danger to his life”.
Hryb had been complaining of acute stomach pain and nausea before the court hearing on December 12, but says that the SIZO staff simply gave him a pile of tablets and sent him to the court. There he said that he was in such pain that he couldn’t possibly register what was going on and an ambulance was called. The paramedic who came said that he could be suffering from enterocolitis, an infection-caused inflammation of the digestive tract. Or it could be an inflamed ulcer, something which Hryb is vulnerable to. She noted that Hryb had a fever which indicated some kind of inflammation and said that he must be examined.
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Hryb’s Ukrainian lawyer Yevhenia Zakrevska approached the European Court of Human Rights asking them to react within the framework of Rule 39 of the Convention (allowing for urgent measures to be taken).
However, Russia has already once flouted an order to allow Ukrainian doctors to examine Hryb. It has instead produced test results which are suspiciously good. This demonstrates shocking brutality in the case of the young man who has serious health issues which could prove fatal if he is not provided proper treatment. There are no medical facilities in Krasnodar capable of treating Hryb should haemorrhaging begin, and Russia is clearly placing the Ukrainian's life in danger.
