Police beat dark-skinned student in Kharkiv

The policemen demanded that two foreign students show their documents, and then started to beat one of them.

According to the City Watch local news portal, two foreigners were sitting at a bus stop in a commuter area in Kharkiv. Two police officers came up, asked them to show their documents, and then began to beat one of the students. A guy was huddled into a police car.

A Kharkiv resident Kyrylo, who was at the same stop at that time, captured actions of the policemen on a video.

“They took his student ID card and said that it was not a document. The dark-skinned man asked, ‘Why is it not a document?’ and began to explain that he had been issued this card at the institute and said that it was a document. The policeman slapped him across the face and said, ‘Calm down,’” eyewitness Kyrylo said to the City Watch correspondent.

At the same time, the police officers claimed that the foreigner was drunk and said to him, “Have you zoned out?” “Why are you so cocky, huh?” and “You’ll shit bricks now, nit.”

According to Kyrylo, after he had heard this phrase, he stood up for the foreign students, and asked the policemen to show their documents.

“I started to talk to them because of this phrase, I feared for the guys,” Kyrylo explains.

Only thanks to the intervention of the eyewitnesses, the police let the students go, one of the law enforcement officers showed his documents.

The foreigner wanted to draw up a statement on the scene, but the policemen said that they had no forms. He drew up a report the next day and verified the injuries.

The press office of the Ukraine’s Interior Ministry department in Kharkiv region reported that the internal investigation into this case was being carried out, and its results would be made public soon.