Order for Ukrainian activist to undergo psychiatric assessment is “harassment,” says Amnesty

A Ukrainian trade union activist has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination because of what prosecutors call “an excessive awareness of his own and others’ rights.”

Amnesty International, which has taken up his case, has called on the Ukrainian authorities to halt a process that has nothing to do with mental health. The head of the Ukraine Psychiatric Association has also expressed concern.

Andrei Bondarenko, who is planning to appeal to the country’s supreme court, has no record of mental illness but has been campaigning for the rights of workers in …