Niiara Ersambetova, a Crimean woman who was “sentenced” to 15 years in custody for alleged “treason,” has gone on a hunger strike at Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol. According to the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG), the woman began her hunger strike on June 8, 2026, due to unbearable conditions of detention. In the cell, previously used to detain tuberculosis carriers, the toilet is out of order, and the prisoners were told that it would not be repaired. In addition, Niiara complains of deteriorating health: her blood sugar has risen, and she has developed a rash all over her body. To remind, she worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy in the Bilohirsk district. She was detained by Russian occupation law enforcement officials on the seventh day after her mother’s funeral, in May 2025. Niiara has two children: a 9-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son. In June 2025, she was accused of allegedly collaborating with the ATESH partisan movement by providing it with information about fuel depots and the positions of Russian air defense forces. In December 2025, the occupying “Supreme Court” of Crimea sentenced a resident of the Nyzhniohirsk District to 15 years in custody for alleged “treason.” In April 2026, the Third Court of Appeals in Sochi (Russian Federation) rejected an appeal against the verdict of the occupying Crimean court regarding political prisoner Niiara Ersambetova, a resident of the Nyzhniohirsk District
Niiara Ersambetova, a Crimean woman who was “sentenced” to 15 years in custody for alleged “treason,” has gone on a hunger strike at Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol.
According to the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG), the woman began her hunger strike on June 8, 2026, due to unbearable conditions of detention.
In the cell, previously used to detain tuberculosis carriers, the toilet is out of order, and the prisoners were told that it would not be repaired.
In addition, Niiara complains of deteriorating health: her blood sugar has risen, and she has developed a rash all over her body.
To remind, she worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy in the Bilohirsk district. She was detained by Russian occupation law enforcement officials on the seventh day after her mother’s funeral, in May 2025. Niiara has two children: a 9-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.
In June 2025, she was accused of allegedly collaborating with the ATESH partisan movement by providing it with information about fuel depots and the positions of Russian air defense forces.
In December 2025, the occupying “Supreme Court” of Crimea sentenced a resident of the Nyzhniohirsk District to 15 years in custody for alleged “treason.”
In April 2026, the Third Court of Appeals in Sochi (Russian Federation) rejected an appeal against the verdict of the occupying Crimean court regarding political prisoner Niiara Ersambetova, a resident of the Nyzhniohirsk District