27.05.11
The court convicted the 68-year-old of bribe-taking and sentenced him to 5.5 years imprisonment. If the appeal fails, Mr Temchenko’s lawyer and his family fear that he will simply not live to serve it to the full
Aigul Mukanova from the Strategic Court Defence Centre reports that people are detained and have a confession beaten out of them for a crime they know nothing about. If the relatives come up with money the protocol of such a “confession” is ripped up
The EU must push the Ukrainian authorities to adopt the law on national preventive mechanism as soon as possible and provide financial support in setting up the scrutiny mechanism. Otherwise stories like those of Ihor Indylo and others will continue to be all too common
18.05.11
Meetings have taken place in many parts of Ukraine in memory of a young student who died on the eve of his twentieth birthday, during the night from 17 to 18 May 2010. Ihor Indylo had committed no offence, went voluntarily to the police station. He died from head injuries and haemorrhaging
Human rights activists believe that the treatment of Temchenko in the SIZO [pre-trial detention centre] is equivalent to torture since he is in a very bad state of health and needs specialized medical care
Serhiy Lytvyn had previously alleged that he had been tortured on a number of occasions both in the Kharkiv Department for Fighting Organized Crime [UBOZ] where he was taken for questioning and in the SIZO
Human rights activists and the relatives of victims assert that incidents of torture in prisons, SIZO [pre-trial detention centres] and police custody are becoming more common and the number of deaths there has doubled in the last year
28.04.11
The inhuman treatment of former Dean of the Kryvy Rih Technical University, Anatoly Temchenko is continuing
On 21 April 2011 the European Court of Human Rights found, among others, violation of the prohibition against torture on account Ivan Nechniporuk’s having been tortured and of the lack of an effective investigation into his complaints in that respect;
Members of the nationalist organization Tryzub who are charged with cutting off the head of the monument to Stalin on Zaporizhya Communist Party land claim that while in the SIZO [remand unit] they were tortured and isolated from lawyers and their relatives
The Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office has officially completed its investigation into the death of Ihor Indylo and is handing the case to the court. Two police officers are charged, but not with Ihor’s death
Holding 70-year-old Anatoly Temchenko who is in very poor health in a SIZO [pre-trial detention centre] cannot be described as anything less than torture, human rights activist, Andriy Didenko says
According to lawyer Oleksandr Zarutsky, who is representing Ihor Indylo’s family, the relevant decision was issued by the Desnyansky District Court in Kyiv on Wednesday
08.04.11
On Thursday 7 April a picket organized by the Kharkiv Human Rights Group took place outside the Kharkiv Regional Police Department
The Kharkiv Prosecutor Yevhen Popovych has reported that a Kharkiv resident has died in hospital after being at a regional police station
31.03.11
The Kharkiv Human Rights Group has given a press conference on the use of torture by police and the worrying increase in deaths of detainees
Yakov Strogan is facing charges of attempted murder which were laid almost 4 months after the incident in question and consistent allegations by Strogan, supported by human rights defenders, of torture and gross misconduct by police officers
Alexander Rafalsky is serving a life sentence after being arrested in 2001 and allegedly subjected to torture on a number of occasions in unsuccessful attempts to get him to sign a confession. The Supreme Court has found unlawful the initial refusal by the Prosecutor to initiate a criminal investigation.
Andriy Chernousov from the Kharkiv Social Research Institute looks at the disturbing statistics for deaths in police custody and at the failings in the present system for investigating the circumstances in each such case
21.03.11
Lutsk resident, Tetyana Zhuchaeva, who was wrongly suspected of stealing money alleges that police officers held her in custody for a day and a half, and used rough means and psychological pressure to force a confession from her
