TORTURE IN THE POLICE

The First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Head of the Central Department of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Deputy Head of the Internal Security Service of the Ministry, and representatives of the General and Regional Prosecutor’s Offices have already left for the scene of the events. As reported by the press service of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Nina Karpachova has taken personal control of the investigation of this case. Representatives of her secretariat visited Pryluki and Chernihiv on October 7-8 to monitor and clarify the circumstances of the death of Serhiy Kuntsevsky.


It was the principled position of the prosecutor’s office and human rights activists that allowed this brutal murder to be publicized in a timely manner and to inspire hope that this case will not become another “absurdity” that got away with “executions in uniform”.

Serhiy Kuntsevsky was detained on Thursday, October 2 at 1:30 p.m. A group of masked men with machine guns burst into one of the hairdressers in Pryluky. All the workers (including one pregnant woman) and the clients were made to face the wall. They started beating Serhiy Kuntsevsky right there. They also tried to stuff some packages into his pocket. All the workers from the hairdresser confirmed all this in writing to the investigator from the prosecutor’s office who came to take statements from them on Friday, October 3. Then they were taken to the building of the former department of the State Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Around 5:00 p.m., Serhiy Kuntsevsky’s brother Ruslan and another young man, Oleksandr Mikhalenko, were brought to the State Anti-Corruption Bureau building. They were detained in the village of Berezova Rudka in the neighboring Poltava region, 50 km from Pryluky, where they earn a living by guarding farmers’ fields. Both were also beaten by masked police officers during their detention. They had plastic bags over their heads the whole way. Upon arrival, they were taken to different rooms. They demanded a confession about setting fire to a car, continuing to mock and threaten to shove a bottle up their anus. The interrogation was also conducted by masked cops, although a senior lieutenant of the local district police department without a mask participated. At this time, each of them clearly heard that someone was being severely beaten in the next room. Half an hour later, Oleksandr Mykhailenko was taken into this room, where he saw Serhiy Kuntsevsky, still alive with a broken head, standing in handcuffs and with his pants down. That is, it can be assumed that Serhiy was possibly tortured with a bottle. Mykhalenka was told that the same thing would happen to him if he didn’t confess. But around 10:00 p.m. everything stopped abruptly, and Ruslan Kuntsevsky and Oleksandr Mykhalenka were taken out onto the street, where Serhiy and Ruslan’s mother was already fighting hysterically. After some time, an ambulance arrived and confirmed Serhiy Kuntsevsky’s death. Relatives were informed that he had died of a heart attack. A great commotion immediately began. Cars with various officials and cops began arriving and departing. Employees of the district department began approaching the mother and asking if Serhiy suffered from epilepsy, heart disease, etc. As a result, the lights were turned off on the entire street and in the building. The police created a cordon. The Kuntsevskys’ mother and brother were dragged away. The body was put on a bus and taken to the morgue.

Serhiy’s body was only returned on Friday at noon. Moreover, if the bloodied clothes of the murdered person were next to the body in the morning, then already washed wet clothes with a strong smell of ammonia were taken out with the body.

A particularly interesting fact is the place of the murder. The building of the former department of the UBOS in Pryluki at the address Soborna 31 (formerly Sovetskaya) street is a ramshackle building from the outside. It is located 100 meters from the local district police station. Having walked around the perimeter of the house, it was not possible to find any identification marks indicating its affiliation with the police, only on one edge was it possible to find a sign of the Pryluki branch of the State Enterprise “Chernigivstandartmetrologiya”. As far as is known, the Pryluki interdistrict department of the UBOS was disbanded a few years ago. Therefore, the current use of this Gestapo torture chamber raises questions.

And although it was clear that it would be impossible to hide the murder of Kuntsevsky, on Friday, October 3, the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chernihiv Oblast was reborn with material that is simply striking in its impudence and cynicism:

“On October 2 of this year, on suspicion of committing a number of crimes as part of an organized criminal group in the territory of Chernihiv Oblast, officers of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Chernihiv Oblast detained a number of

residents of the city of Pryluky.

In the evening of the same day, one of the suspects complained of feeling unwell and dizziness.

Employees of the department for combating organized crime called an ambulance and began to provide first aid to the person, but the suspect, having lost consciousness, died before the arrival of the medical team.

The leadership of the regional police and prosecutor’s office, the personnel inspection of the UMVD, and representatives of the forensic medical examination went to the scene.

During the preliminary examination of the corpse, no visible traces of bodily injuries were found.

The final cause of the person’s death will be established after the conclusion of the forensic medical examination.

The Chernihiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into this fact.

The Special Investigation Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Chernihiv Oblast.

Indeed, “these hands did not kill anyone.” The above fact suggests that the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chernihiv Oblast took measures to hide information about the crime and save the “executioners in uniform” from punishment.

A meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Chernihiv Oblast on human rights issues is scheduled for October 9, at which the issue of the death of Serhiy Kuntsevsky in the Pryluky Department of the Internal Affairs Department and the general actions of the police in investigating this case is to be considered. It is planned to invite the head of the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Chernihiv Oblast, the head of the Pryluky City District Department of the Internal Affairs Department, representatives of the press and others.

In the photo: relatives of the deceased under the window from which Serhiy Kuntsevsky was killed and the building of the Pryluky Department of the Internal Affairs Department.

Attached: copy of Certificate of Cause of Death of Serhiy Kuntsevsky

Viktor Tarasov

Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights