Lawyer Roman Melnichenko Is Losing His Sight in Detention. Doctors Refuse to Treat Him

Lawyer Roman Melnichenko Is Losing His Sight in Detention. Doctors Refuse to Treat Him

Lawyer and former Volgograd State University lecturer Roman Melnichenko’s health has sharply deteriorated in detention. The lawyer’s defender, Dmitry Sotnikov, said that Melnichenko is losing his sight, but he has been denied medical help.

“Because I began going blind, I was transferred to Federal State Institution LIU-15, where there are medics, but because of insufficient funding they refused to treat me, and now I am waiting to be transferred to SIZO-5,” Melnichenko wrote in a letter.

In addition to vision problems, he has developed blood in his urine.

Who Is Roman Melnichenko?

Melnichenko is a Candidate of Legal Sciences and a former lecturer at Volgograd State University. He helped people facing political persecution, organized a Ukrainian-language study group in Volgograd, and twice lost his job because of his anti-war position.

On July 21, officers from Center “E” detained the lawyer at his apartment in Volgograd, after which a court placed him in custody. The lawyer is accused of discrediting the army. The pretext was a lecture in which Melnichenko gave a legal assessment of Putin’s decree requiring Ukrainians to leave the occupied territories.

In late August, Melnichenko’s defender had already complained about the lack of medical care, as well as unfair detention conditions. “My client is being held in complete isolation in a solitary cell like a terrorist. He is taken out for a walk for 10-15 minutes a day,” he said.

Roman Melnichenko / Photo: Politzek-Info

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