MOSCOW. Aug 9 (Interfax) - Inmate Oleh Sentsov has refused to meet with a priest, the press service for the Federal Penitentiary Service's (FSIN) Yamalo-Nenets district branch said.
"Bishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko was denied visiting Oleh Sentsov again today, because Oleh Sentsov had not agreed to this meeting," the press service said.
Convicts' meetings with priests are regulated by Article 14 of the Russian Penal Enforcement Code: a priest is invited to visit an inmate to hold a private conversation and carry out clerical sacraments following the inmate's written request.
"Sentsov has not made any requests with the management of the penitentiary facility for a meeting with the bishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko. Moreover, several days ago, on August 4, when the father superior of St. George's Church of the town of Labytnangi, priest Bogdan Vasilyuk, had visited the penal colony No. 8 of the FSIN's branch for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, inmate Oleh Sentsov also refused contact with him and said that he does not need spiritual guidance," the press service said.
In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov, who had been detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony for an attempt to set up a terrorist group on the peninsula.
Sentsov has been on a hunger strike since May 14, 2018, demanding that all Ukrainian citizens held in Russia be released.