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Russian historian Yuri Dmitriev, who uncovered mass graves of victims of Soviet repression, transferred to hospital with suspected stroke, rights group says

Source: For Human Rights

Historian Yuri Dmitriev, 70, was rushed from Penal Colony No. 18 in Mordovia to a prison medical facility in the village of Barashevo after a suspected stroke, the human rights group ZPCh reported.

A source for the rights group questioned whether the facility could treat him. “I doubt this prison medical facility has the equipment needed to diagnose and treat him. […] Yuri Alexeyevich needs to be transferred to a city hospital. His lawyer must also be allowed to see him immediately. On Saturday, September 26, the lawyer will try to visit Yuri Dmitriev, but I’m almost certain they won’t let him in over the weekend,” the source said.

Dmitriev is a historian and former head of Memorial in Karelia. In 1997, he found mass graves of victims of Soviet repression in the Sandarmokh forest. He also compiled memorial lists of Karelia residents who had been subjected to political repression.

Dmitriev has been in custody since 2016, when he was accused of producing pornography involving his underage adopted daughter, committing lewd acts against her, and illegally possessing a firearm part. The case stemmed from photographs of his daughter found in his possession. Dmitriev denied the allegations, saying he had taken the photos solely for medical reasons, to track the child’s development. In April 2018, a court acquitted him of two charges but sentenced him to three and a half years of restrictions on his movements for the weapons offense. Karelia’s Supreme Court overturned that ruling, and authorities opened another criminal investigation into sexual assault allegations against Dmitriev. He was sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony in that case. In December 2021, a court in Petrozavodsk combined the sentences and gave him 15 years in a high-security penal colony.

More than 150 Russian cultural figures and more than 400 foreign scholars signed joint letters in support of Dmitriev. Nobel Prize in Literature laureates Herta Müller and Svetlana Alexievich, along with Goncourt Prize winner Jonathan Littell, have also spoken out in his support. Memorial considers Dmitriev a political prisoner.

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