Arrested Sochi resident tried to commit suicide in a special detention center

Olga Eskova, who was arrested for 15 days for a pro-Ukrainian comment on Telegram, attempted suicide in a detention center, after which she was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Relatives are sure that the woman was pressured in the detention center.

Olga Eskova is 51 years old, police detained her on July 10. The next day, the Central District Court of Sochi found her guilty of demonstrating prohibited symbols (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and arrested her for 15 days.

The protocol against Eskova was drawn up because of a pro-Ukrainian comment that she left on the Telegram channel of the “I Want to Live” project. The court regarded her statement as a demonstration of “welcome attributes” of Ukrainian organizations that are recognized as extremist in Russia, according to the ruling on the case on the court’s website.

Eskova's family only learned on July 21 that she had attempted suicide in a special detention center after five days under arrest. After that, she was hospitalized in a mental hospital, where she remains to this day. The woman's relatives were not notified of what happened, the human rights project "OVD-Info"* reported with reference to the son of the arrested woman from Sochi.

Olga's husband was able to talk to her in the mental hospital for only five minutes. Before that, he was not allowed to attend a court hearing with his wife and was not told which special detention center she would be serving her arrest in - the man himself found out where his wife was being held, asked to see her, but was refused. Eskova's relatives believe that she attempted suicide because of the pressure that was put on her in the special detention center. At the same time, the family does not yet know how long they are going to keep her in the mental hospital, and the details of what happened to Olga have not been reported to her relatives.

 "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that Stavropol resident Yegor Filippov received a year and a half of forced labor in a criminal case for the repeated discrediting of the Russian army, initiated because of a pacifist publication.

* are included in the register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.