Eight torture chambers functioning in Donetsk, Luhansk

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported that several torture chambers are functioning in the uncontrolled territory of Donbas: six in Donetsk and two in Luhansk.

The relevant data with the addresses are published on the SBU page on Facebook.

Some torture chambers are located in remand prisons and former premises of the SBU departments.

As reported, the SPT delegation suspended its visit to Ukraine after being denied access to places in several parts of the country where it suspects people are being deprived of their liberty by the Security Service of Ukraine.

The UN also stated that the organization had often received messages from victims and their relatives who claimed the SBU officers often deprived the detainees of any contact with their families and access to a lawyer.

May 26, SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak said that the SBU had reasonably denied access of the UN delegation to the premises of SBU’s district departments in Mariupol and Kramatorsk as no detainees or prisoners were held there.

August 29, the report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch was released, saying that 13 persons had been freed from the “secret prisons” of the Security Service of Ukraine. The report also provides evidence of some of these people.

September 12, the SBU informed that the UN Committee delegation had received unfettered and immediate access to all the SBU premises in different regions of the country and familiarize with the documents on work with persons, involved in the proceedings within its repeated visit in September.

In addition, the SBU officers gave the delegation the updated lists of Ukrainian citizens who are illegally held in the occupied territories of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic” and are considered missing.

The delegation was also given the testimony of released people, who had been tortured and forcibly held in the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Ukraine.

As reported by the SBU press service, head of the SPT delegation Malcolm Evans noted that access to the areas, not controlled by the Ukrainian government, remained to be a challenge.