The art historian Olena Pekh (right) has been imprisoned in Ukraine; her daughter Isabella (left) is appealing for her release Courtesy of gorlovka.ua
Museums in Ukraine and Poland have asked for international help in securing the release of art scholar Olena Pekh, who has reportedly been held captive and tortured in Russia-occupied Donbas, Ukraine, for the last two and a half years. Pekh, a 49-year-old research fellow at the Horlivka Museum of Fine Arts, in eastern Ukraine, was apprehended by Russian rebels on 9 August 2018 while visiting her sick mother. She was accused of treason and espionage and sentenced to 13 years behind bars in what the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Ukraine) says was a sham trial. ICOM Ukraine and its counterpart in Poland are now appealing to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to help get Pekh released.
Olena Pekh / prisonersvoice.app
Museum organizations of Ukraine and Poland are seeking OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ann Linde s support in facilitating the release of Olena Pekh, an art scholar and research fellow at the Horlivka Museum of Fine Arts, who has been held captive in Russia-occupied Donbas since August 2018.
The Ukrainian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Ukraine) and ICOM Poland have issued a corresponding statement on January 18.
Pekh was captured in the Russian-occupied town of Horlivka on August 9, 2018.
She left the occupied territory for the city of Odesa in 2014 with her underage daughter, but had to make regular trips back to Horlivka since 2016 to help her mother, who required medical assistance and care because of her deteriorating health.