Afanasyev was arrested in May 2014 in Crimea together with Oleg Senstov and two others and charged with conspiring to commit terrorism in Crimea. According to reports, Afanaseyev initially gave testimony against Senstov and Oleksandr Kolchenko, but later said that he had given the testimony under torture. RFE/RL reported that Hennadiy Afanasyev's lawyer, Aleksandr Popkov, said that Afanasyev's request that he be transferred to another facility so he could get treatment for a blood infection was refused. Earlier this month, he was put in a punishment cell after contraband items were allegedly found on him. RFE/RL quotes Popkov as saying: "They’re seriously squeezing him. They’re using the full power of the repressive machine against him. This, most likely, worries him most. One thing after another is piling up: problems with his health, problems with the [prison] director, who is reprimanding him without cause."

Halya Coynash, writing for Human Rights in Ukraine, states that the the release of the four men has been "demanded by all democratic countries and international bodies and is part of the commitments made under the Minsk Agreement." Coynash writes that Afanasyev, along with three others who were detained in May 2014, all opposed Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea, and they were held incommunicado for a number of weeks, probably, she writes, to conceal signs of torture. On May 30 the FSB claimed the men had been involved in a ‘Right Sector terrorist plot’. They were convicted in relation to these charges.

Photo of Hennadiy Afanaseyev: Human Rights in Ukraine, via social networks