On sexless persons and Her Who Must Not Be Named

Today I saw Sasha at the detention center. Unfortunately, she is still suffering from severe heartache and strong arrhythmia at night, which does not let her sleep properly, as well as from aches in her lower abdomen. In spite of her constant appeals, both the doctors at the detention center No. 5 and those at the psychiatric hospital No. 6 where she was placed for the psychiatric evaluation, have been ignoring her requests to get medical help and conduct the necessary examinations. They claim that they are not able to help as there are no specialists and no equipment. Despite Sasha’s constant complaints, the doctors keep writing in their reports that Sasha is not complaining about anything and that there is no urgent need to send her to a hospital. This is not true. Sasha is really feeling very poorly now but neither the court nor the doctors have taken it into consideration.

Sasha has also “gathered her courage” and is ready to talk about the things that have been happening to her lately. Let’s begin with Sasha’s arrival at the psychiatric hospital, which was on June 8th. While Sasha was taking a shower and changing into hospital clothes, several male members of the staff (Sasha isn’t sure whether they were guards or hospital employees) lined up and watched Sasha shower and change. They were not reacting to the rebukes and when Sasha asked them to tell her their names they refused, saying that they were not going to name themselves for security reasons. They even ignored a reprimand from a female employee of the hospital and replied that they were persons without sex and one could change clothes in their presence. This certainly is a disgusting situation, and Sasha felt humiliated and really powerless. Thankfully, it did not happen again. Of course, we let the head doctor know about this, and I hope that some action was taken.

When Sasha was transferred back to the detention center (which was on June 28th), she was taken from the hospital before lunch but only got to the cell by 10 p.m. She had no food or water for this whole time. She was brought to the detention center by 5 p.m. and spent five hours in a so-called “kennel”. I am going to quote Sasha on what it is:

A “kennel” is a basement space, decrepit, with no functioning plumbing. I sat there for five hours on a cold iron bed in a cold humid room with a toilet full of shit. I was in a solitary cell because others were afraid that I was mentally unwell.

When Sasha talked about her psychiatric evaluation with one of the medical department employees, he was surprised, “Can it be that dissidence is equated to a psychiatric disorder?” We don’t have the results of the evaluation yet but I think they will be ready soon. There is unconfirmed information about Sasha’s last name, Skochilenko, being censored now. Even if you are writing letters to non-political prisoners and are telling them about Sasha and her case, there is a good chance that these letters won’t be let through. A censor told Sasha that now she is “like in Harry Potter”: “She Who Must Not Be Named”. Last week, Sasha’s partner Sonia and I went to see the chief doctor of the psychiatric hospital. We let her know that we needed to get the medical document for the court hearing (specifically, general medical information that does not relate to the psychiatric evaluation). The doctor assured us that upon Sasha’s release from the hospital she would get the information from her medical card and I would receive a reply to the lawyer’s request that I would send through. But my request was denied: it was claimed that the general medical documents contain the data of the preliminary investigation and may not be shared with me. Which is why we were unable to present the analyses results in the court, and we needed that to confirm our position. Also, Sasha was assured that she would get her [medical] documents upon her release from the hospital, but it was a lie.

During our meeting with the chief doctor, we also complained about the lack of the gluten-free diet (it was put in place only three days before Sasha’s transfer back to the detention center) and about the impossibility to go for walks and get fresh air—there wasn’t any fresh air at the hospital at all. For the whole three weeks that Sasha spent at the hospital, she hadn’t seen the sun—which is also, in our opinion, a gross violation of her rights. We were assured that all the conditions [at the hospital] were appropriate. I will share the non-replies that I got in response to the lawyer’s request I sent to the hospital below.

07/04/2022

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