33-year-old Kaliningrad resident Andrey Lugovoy is serving a six-year sentence in IK-8 Kaliningrad for a case of military "fakes" due to posts about Bucha. He has been under arrest since December 2023, and the sentence was passed in September last year. Through relatives, he sent SOTAvision* a letter in which he spoke about violations in his case in court and the denial of medical assistance in the colony.
According to Lugovoy, during the investigation in the pre-trial detention center, he was forced to write statements refusing to participate in investigative procedures. At the same time, according to the lawyer, law enforcement edited screenshots in Lugovoy's Telegram channel. The authorship of the text was established, relying only on the words of witnesses, some of whom expressed hostility towards Lugovoy in court.
In the pre-trial detention center, without explanation, the man was deprived of vital medications, the first call to his family was allowed 472 days after the arrest, the first meeting — after 8 months. Lugovoy was not allowed to receive drinking water, was not allowed to wash for a month, and was sent to solitary confinement without explanation. From the cell where the political prisoner was held, his personal belongings disappeared, and staff confiscated his notes. Because of all this, he declared a hunger strike.
Currently, Andrey Lugovoy is in great need of medication and the help of a qualified cardiologist. Now the administration of IK-8 is also denying him this.
In the same colony is political prisoner Igor Baryshnikov, who waited a year for surgery after an exacerbation of prostate adenoma. The operation was scheduled only after Baryshnikov's lawyers appealed to the UN Human Rights Committee.
* Recognized as a "foreign agent" in Russia.