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Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Akhtem Chiygoz, has said the administration of a detention center in Russian-occupied Crimea where Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh is kept ignores his serious condition caused by hunger strike and keeps him in a common cell.

"Volodymyr Balukh is still held in a common cell. The administration of the detention center does not take into account his serious condition and does not transfer him into a cell with better conditions," Chiygoz said, the news outlet Krym.Realii said.

Read also"Condition remains extremely difficult": Chiygoz on Balukh's hunger strike in occupied Crimea prison

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According to him, Balukh should be transferred to a cell with two prisoners, but he is still in a common cell.

There are no public comments of the detention center staff on this matter.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Crimean court on July 5 sentenced Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh to an extra five-year term in a penal colony and a RUB 10,000 fine in the second criminal case opened against him. That second case was based on claims by Valeriy Tkachenko, the head of a detention center in the village of Rozdolne, who stated Balukh had allegedly assaulted him, while the prisoner and his defense insisted that it was Tkachenko who had in fact attacked the defendant.

Balukh was detained by Russia's FSB Federal Security Service on December 8, 2016. FSB operatives claimed that they had allegedly found 90 ammunition rounds and several TNT explosives in his attic.

On March 14, 2018, the Kremlin-controlled "Supreme Court of Crimea" reviewed Balukh's original verdict and sentenced him to three years and five months in a penal colony settlement and a RUB 10,000 fine. On March 19, Balukh said he would go on hunger strike in response to the verdict.

Balukh's defense and human rights activists assert that he is a victim of repression over his public pro-Ukrainian position.