Disturbing reports of detentions and beating outside Party of the Regions Congress

On Monday evening four people standing near where the Party of the Regions Congress is taking place were detained by police.  According to one of the four, Yaroslava Pugachova, they were standing, smoking and discussing possible protest against the controversial Kivalov-Kolesnichenko language law when they were approached by people in plain clothes who forced them into police cars without any explanation.

The Kyiv Police Press Secretary Volodymyr Dmytrenko confirms that they received a report about four suspicious individuals “with suspicious packets in their hands”.  He acknowledges that this was the only reason that the four were taken to the police station.

Soon afterwards lawyer Oleh Veremeyenko arrived at the police station to see one of the detained.  His client, a young woman, felt very weak and he repeatedly asked the police to call an ambulance. When this was to no avail, he tried to press the ambulance button himself.  He says that he was then set upon and beaten by police officers.  He explained all of this to a civic activist friend from the hospital where he is being treated for his injuries.

see also:
• Civic activists protest over police assault on lawyer
• Call for adequate measures against police who assaulted Oleh Veremeyenko
• Journalist assaulted by Regions Party delegate’s guard
• Committee of Voters journalist refused accreditation for Party of the Regions conference
• Dangerous attack on Committee of Voters journalist
• Administrative Resource – a Threat to Honest Elections
• Police interference in the electoral process
• Election monitoring in Luhansk
• Not Free Elections
• Attempts to bribe voters already underway
• Andriy Mahera: Without changes to electoral law, the results may be challenged in court
• Parliamentary elections with limited access to information