Historian Yury Dmitriev, 70, has been returned to Penal Colony No. 18 in Mordovia from a prison hospital, the human rights group ZPCh said, citing his support group. He was taken to the hospital in late September with a suspected stroke.
“He’s not feeling very well. They suspected a stroke, but there’s been no diagnosis: the hospital doesn’t have the equipment to diagnose it. Dmitriev was given a course of injections. We don’t know what they gave him,” the support group said.
Dmitriev’s supporters said he was prescribed bed rest until October 28. But until recently, staff at the penal colony were unaware of this and would not let him lie down, a woman from the support group told ZPCh.
“It’s hard to keep count of how many times he’s been put in a punishment cell. One time it’s because the top button on his shirt isn’t fastened, another because he sat on his bed, another because he fed a cat. Being in a damp, unheated room doesn’t do his health any good,” the support group said.
Yury Dmitriev is a historian and the former head of Memorial’s Karelia branch. In 1997, he discovered mass graves of victims of Soviet political repression in the Sandarmokh forest. He also compiled lists commemorating victims of political repression in Karelia.
Dmitriev has been imprisoned since 2016, when he was charged with producing pornography involving his underage adopted daughter, committing lewd acts against her, and illegally possessing a firearm component.
The case stemmed from photographs of his daughter found in his possession. He denied the charges and said he had taken the photographs solely for medical purposes, to track her development. In 2018, a court acquitted him on two of the charges. For the weapons possession offense, he received only a noncustodial sentence of 3.5 years of restricted freedom.
Karelia’s Supreme Court later overturned that verdict. Authorities opened another criminal investigation into Dmitriev, this time for sexual assault. He was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony in that case. In December 2021, a court in Petrozavodsk combined his sentences and ordered him to serve 15 years in a high-security penal colony.
Dmitriev denied the charges in both cases. Memorial considers him a political prisoner. Scholars, cultural figures, and Nobel laureates have spoken out in his support.
From Meduza’s archives
- Next question ‘Meduza’ talks to the lawyers involved in historian Yuri Dmitriev’s case
- Nine photos Russia put a historian on trial twice for supposedly abusing his foster daughter sexually. Here’s how Yuri Dmitriev became a ‘political prisoner.’
- ‘It’s a threat to his life’ 64-year-old Gulag historian Yury Dmitriev was acquitted on child porn charges in 2018, but he’s still in jail on appeal. Now, his attorney fears COVID-19 could be the end.
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