If you want to get an idea of ​​how people are doing on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was occupied by the Russians in 2014, you should look at the fate of citizen journalist Irina Danilovich.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for feuilleton online and "media".

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She worked full-time as a nurse in the city of Koktebel.

As a citizen journalist, according to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), she reported on health care abuses in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia.

Her articles have appeared on the Ukrainian news website Injir-Media, on the online portal Krym.Realii, funded by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and on her own YouTube channel.

On April 29 last year, Irina Danilovich was kidnapped in her home town of Vladislavovka by the Russian domestic secret service FSB.

She was held in the basement of the FSB headquarters in Simferopol and, according to her own statements, tortured.

On December 28, a court set up by the Russian occupation authorities in the port city of Feodosiya sentenced her to seven years in prison and a fine of 650 euros.

She allegedly possessed explosives.

“This draconian verdict aims to silence a courageous journalist.

And the last independent media workers in Crimea should be intimidated,” said Christian Mihr, the managing director of Reporters Without Borders in Germany.

The allegations were completely unfounded.

"We demand Irina Danilovich's release."

Torture in the basement of the FSB

After she was abducted, her home was searched and her cell phone and laptop were confiscated.

A Russian secret service agent told her father that she was suspected of working for Ukraine's domestic intelligence agency SBU, Reporters Without Borders reports.

Neither her family and friends nor her lawyer could find out where Irina Danilovich was being held.

In the FSB basement in Simferopol, she says she was beaten, strangled, put on a lie detector, threatened with death and asked to denounce others, particularly Crimean Tatar journalists and activists.

Later, according to the Reporters Without Borders report, accusations followed

she "built a bomb from 200 grams of explosives and the needles of medical syringes" and hid this explosive device in a glasses case.

The explosives, says Irina Danilovich, were planted on her by the FSB after she had rejected the suspicion that she was working for the Ukrainian secret service SBU.

In detention, Irina Danilovich got an otitis media.

During the court hearing, she was unable to hear or understand what was going on in the room.

She was denied medical help, and on the last day of the trial, a trial observer noticed that Irina Danilovich had coordination problems.

The hearing was only briefly interrupted.

"The totalitarian regime does not need people who openly tell the truth," Irina Danilovich said in her closing statement in court, according to Reporters Without Borders.

She recalled the fate of more than 20 Crimean Tatars who disappeared without a trace under the Russian occupation.

The citizen journalist has now been imprisoned for seven years, and investigations into alleged state treason against Irina Danilovich are still ongoing, according to Reporters Without Borders.

The Russian occupiers “virtually destroyed” independent journalism in Crimea.

All Crimean Tatar media should have left the peninsula, and only 232 of the 3,000 media outlets were allowed to work under the occupation.

Citizen journalists risked persecution and imprisonment.

Irina Danilovich is one of nine Ukrainian media workers from Crimea who are in Russian prisons.

In September last year, Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine about the arbitrary arrest and disappearance of Irina Danilovich.

In the press freedom rankings compiled by the organization, Russia ranks 155th out of 180 countries.