Woman from Rostov-on-Don joins the hunger strike in defence of Vasily Aleksanyan

Raissa Grishechkina, a resident of Rostov-on-Don, has joined the hunger strike demanding to release Vasily Aleksanyan, former vice-president of the YUKOS Oil Company, who is seriously ill but still kept in SIZO (pre-trial facility).

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Evgeniy Ikhlov, head of the information-analytical service of the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights".

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former YUKOS head, who is now kept in SIZO of the city of Chita, was the first to announce a termless hunger strike from January 29 with the same demand in defence of his former colleagues and advocate Vasily Aleksanyan.

From February 1, the hunger strike was also started by Elena Sannikova and Tatiana Monakhova, Moscow activists of the Movement against the war in Chechnya, and Suren Sarkisyan and Stanislav Yakovlev, members of the United Civil Front. On Monday, February 4, civil activists from Moscow Yulia Bashinova, Alexei Davydov and Pavel Nikulin, and human rights activist from Samara Alexander Lashmankin and leader of Samara-based public organization "Yedinstvo" (Unity) Svetlana Chernova announced their participation in the protest action. Starting from today, Alexei Kozlov, one of the leaders of the movement "GROZA" (Thunderstorm) from Voronezh, has started his hunger strike.

"The participants of the hunger strike demand Vasily Aleksanyan's immediate hospitalization from the prison into normal hospital conditions, where he should be given duly qualified medical aid. The authorities ignore the extremely grave condition of the former YUKOS Vice-President, who is presently suffering from cancer, tuberculosis, AIDS and has practically completely gone blind. Despite all these facts, the court has left the dying man in prison, having broken not only the rules of law and three instructions of the European Court for Human Rights about his immediate hospitalization, but also the elementary principles of humanity," runs the statement of the participants of solidarity hunger strike with Aleksanyan that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot".