In Chernihiv, they demanded an effective investigation into torture

On June 26, 2012, on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the public organization “M’ART” and the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Chernihiv held an action-exhibition in which they visually demonstrated the need to create a system for proper investigation of numerous cases of torture in Ukraine. The action was also held simultaneously in Kyiv, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia.

Torture and ill-treatment by the police in Ukraine have become systematic, as human rights activists have repeatedly reported in their reports.

Human rights activists note that there is an increase in cases of human rights violations by the police. If, according to sociological research conducted annually by the Kharkiv Institute of Social Research together with the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, in 2010, 780-790 thousand Ukrainians became victims of unlawful violence in the police alone, then in 2011 this figure increased to almost 1 million Ukrainians.

These violations are facilitated by the culture of impunity of law enforcement officers in Ukraine. Complaints based on well-founded accusations of serious human rights violations are often given a standard response of “no element of a crime”. The only body authorized by Ukrainian legislation to investigate complaints of ill-treatment by law enforcement officers is the prosecutor’s office. However, the prosecutor’s office is unable to conduct an effective investigation of such complaints due to its dual responsibility: on the one hand, it is responsible for verifying the legality of police actions, and on the other, it supports the prosecution in court, and therefore has close operational ties with police officers.

The European Court of Human Rights in its decision of May 15, 2012 in the case “Kaverzin v. Ukraine” noted that torture and the lack of effective investigation of torture facts by the prosecutor’s office are a systemic problem for Ukraine.

But in Chernihiv region, law enforcement statistics for some reason indicate the absence of such a problem.

Thus, according to the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Chernihiv region, in the first half of 2011: “….418 reports of human rights violations were registered in the region, of which 12 were related to beatings, 11 to illegal searches, 2 to illegal detention, 16 to illegal criminal prosecution and 245 to illegal administrative prosecution.”

The report notes that: “…of all the specified reports of human rights violations, 208 were not confirmed at all, for 125 reports, materials in accordance with Article 97 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine were sent to the prosecutor’s office, which made 124 decisions to refuse to initiate a criminal case, and for 1 report, a criminal case was initiated (Berkut Special Investigation Unit).”

That is, out of 418 reports, only 1 (!) complaint revealed signs of a crime in the actions of law enforcement officers and a decision was made to initiate a criminal case. Such statistics are truly impressive.

More to come. The authors of the mentioned material summarize why citizens still complain about the actions of police officers:

“A study of the mentioned statistics has established that the majority of citizens were prompted to write appeals by a natural defensive reaction to accusations of committing a crime or offense, in order to avoid punishment for the actions committed, confuse the investigation and prevent the establishment of the truth in the case.”

That is, according to the logic of law enforcement officers, only fraudsters, thieves and hooligans have the audacity to complain about the illegal actions of police officers.

According to the Chernihiv region prosecutor’s office, a decision was made to refuse to initiate a criminal case on the basis of Article 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine for all (!) appeals about illegal investigation methods that were received by the regional prosecutor’s office in 2009-2011.

But, unfortunately, the reality looks the opposite of the information provided.

In recent days, the Ukrainian and local media have reported on high-profile events in the Chernihiv region. In particular, in the Horodnyansky district, a young man hanged himself after, according to his relatives, police officers tortured him and demanded that he confess to growing cannabis in his garden. Although relatives and neighbors claim that before that, the police officers themselves dug up cannabis bushes in a neighbor’s garden and planted them in the garden of the orphaned boy.

Another case concerns the rape case in Pryluky, which has already been dubbed the “Oksana Makar – 2 case.” According to the victim’s relatives, law enforcement officers from the city of Pryluky are involved in this crime.

Therefore, the participants of the action demanded from the prosecutor’s office and the police an effective and, most importantly, transparent investigation of these cases.

Contacts:

Viktor Tarasov, Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights

Tel. (0462) 625-381

Serhiy Burov, public organization “M’ART”

Tel. (0462) 77-41-10