Ukraine’s security officers torture pro-Russian separatists, their families – UN

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remains highly concerned about consistent allegations of detainees being held in unofficial places of detention by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

This is stated in the thirteenth report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, which covered the period from November 16, 2015 to February 15, 2016.

These places are not accessible to the National Preventive Mechanism and the international organizations.

The UN calls the accounts from victims and their relatives reliable and indicates that the SBU officers often ban the detainees from any contact with their family or access to a lawyer.

“Information recorded by OHCHR indicates that, as of February 2016, 20 to 30 people were detained illegally and incommunicado at the Kharkiv regional SBU building,” reads the report of OHCHR.

In turn, the SBU officials have systematically denied any involvement.

However, the UN insists that the vast majority of those held in the Kharkiv SBU were not arrested in accordance with legal procedures and have not been charged, despite being held because of their presumed affiliation with the armed groups.

“These detainees are held in such circumstances until surrendered to armed groups in simultaneous releases of detainees,” the document says.

Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Fiona Frazer says that such unofficial places are located, particularly, in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol and Kramatorsk.

During the reporting period, OHCHR documented a pattern of cases of “SBU detaining and allegedly torturing the female relatives of men suspected of membership or affiliation with the armed groups.”

The report cites an example: “on 8 December 2015, in Shchurove village, Donetsk region, SBU officers arrested a 74-year-old woman at her house while they were looking for her son. She was detained at the SBU building in Mariupol, charged with ‘terrorism’, and beaten. OHCHR visited her in the Mariupol pre-trial detention facility.”

It is stated that the Office of the Military Prosecutor initiated a criminal investigation into her allegations of ill-treatment.

The OHCHR also documented the case of three women, who were detained in May 2015, in a town under Government control in Donetsk region. The victims included the wife of an armed group commander and her daughter. The latter was allegedly severely tortured, and both were allegedly threatened with sexual violence.

OHCHR is concerned about the fact that the authorities are unwilling to investigate allegations of torture particularly when the victims are persons detained on grounds related to national security or are viewed as being ‘pro-federalist’.

“Torture can only be prevented if detainees are brought before a judge promptly. Complaints and investigations into allegations are more likely to be effective if they are initiated promptly. In the vast majority of cases documented by OHCHR, police and prosecutors close investigations citing lack of evidence,” reads the report.

The authors of the report underscore that delays in collecting evidence of torture often lead to the loss of crucial evidence. Systemic inaction or delays also inhibit justice and perpetuate impunity.

“We would like to unite the efforts with the civil society organizations in Ukraine to promote the idea of accountability and conduct of investigations of appropriate human rights violations. Accountability is very important because it gives an opportunity for compensating for the losses suffered by the victims and avoiding impunity. After all, it can lead to peace,” Fiona Frazer said.