Member of Russian Human Rights Council says staying in penal colony ‘life-threatening’ for anti-war protester Sasha Skochilenko

Eva Merkacheva, a member of Russia’s Presidential Council for Human Rights, called anti-war protester Sasha Skochilenko’s prison sentence “monstrous.” Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war stickers in April 2022.

“From the very beginning, we knew about Alexandra’s illness, that she has food intolerance, that she has several other health conditions, and she mentioned all this from the outset, every time her pre-trial detention was renewed. When they took such harsh measures for her pre-trial detention, it raised many doubts, questions. And now, after the verdict…” said Merkacheva in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. “That’s why I think that, overall, her stay in a penal colony will be life-threatening. Not to mention the period when a person is transported, it can last not just for one day, it may last for weeks.”

Alexander Brod, another member of the Human Rights Council, said that he would address ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova regarding the issue of providing Skochilenko with proper food in the colony.

Merkacheva also said that in her meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she would ask him to support a bill proposing that people with serious illnesses not be held under arrest during the pre-trial detention period.