"Open letter to the Ukrainian authorities regarding gross violations in the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre"

'Prison Portal' has no confirmation of the facts set out in the letter, but considers the publication of this 'Open Letter' to be justified.

To the President of Ukraine – V. A. Yushchenko
To the Prime Minister of Ukraine – Y. V. Tymoshenko
To the Prosecutor General – A. I. Medvedko
To the Prosecutor of the city of Kyiv – Y. N. Blazhivsky
To the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Verkhovna Rada – N. I. Karpacheva

Open letter to the Ukrainian authorities regarding gross violations in the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre
Subject: The Head of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre is violating the prisoners' right to medical care

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, 03.01.2010, at approximately 21:00, I learned the following from highly reliable sources. The condition of prisoner Yuriy Beketov, born in 1970, who is being held in the medical unit of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre, has worsened significantly. His state of health has deteriorated greatly! Yuriy Beketov has the following symptoms: vomiting, constant dizziness, and severe abdominal pain! When attempting to wash his clothes, Yuriy lifted a bucket weighing up to 5 kg, after which a rupture occurred in the area of the wound on his abdomen, and fluid with a putrid smell began to flow out abundantly, to which other prisoners located in the ward with Beketov can testify. A doctor was called. A paramedic arrived and administered a painkiller. He refused to call an ambulance to the detention centre.
During the last medical examination on 28.12.09, the surgeon from Hospital No. 12, who examined Yu. A. Beketov, cancelled the painkiller injections (because there was simply nowhere left to inject them) and ordered: 'Immediate hospitalisation in the surgical department. Emergency surgical intervention (for an umbilical hernia fistula)'!
The source also conveyed that if the prisoner continues not to receive the necessary medical care and is isolated from doctors—that is, if he is not immediately taken to any hospital in Kyiv or the Kyiv region for surgical treatment—then prisoner Beketov will declare a hunger strike and is prepared to take more radical measures, including slitting his own veins...
Notwithstanding this, the Head of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre, Major Sergey Yevgenyevich Starenky, is in no hurry to hospitalise prisoner Yuriy Beketov. He evidently has some personal interest in this matter. For example, over the last 8 months, he has moved Yuriy Beketov between 13 different cells. Moreover, he continues to insist that Yuriy Beketov is healthy and therefore does not need medical care (see outgoing letter No. V-404 of 25.12.09)! Is this not the reason he refuses to show Beketov's medical file to anyone?!
Conclusion: Torture in the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre continues! How long is this arbitrariness to continue?
Yuriy Beketov may not survive until the moment the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office issues its decision on the criminal complaint under Article 97 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (failure to provide medical assistance to a prisoner) dated 20.11.2009, and until the Kyiv District Administrative Court delivers its verdict on this case as well. The lack of any reaction from law enforcement agencies to the arbitrariness of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre administration regarding prisoners is very telling and speaks volumes, including corruption, the covering up of crimes, unprofessionalism, and the ineffective work of supervisory agencies, where officials are just 'warming their seats' and simply wasting taxpayers' money.
We remind you that on 20.11.2009, Yu. A. Beketov's lawyers filed a statement regarding the initiation of a criminal case against officials of the administration and the medical unit of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre regarding the facts of crimes provided for by Article 364 of the Criminal Code—abuse of power and official position; Article 365 of the Criminal Code—exceeding authority and official powers; Article 367 of the Criminal Code—official negligence; Article 127 of the Criminal Code—torture; Article 135 of the Criminal Code—abandonment in danger; or Article 136 of the Criminal Code—failure to provide assistance to a person in a life-threatening condition; Article 139 of the Criminal Code—failure to provide assistance to a patient by a medical worker; Article 140 of the Criminal Code—improper performance of professional duties by a medical worker in connection with the refusal to treat Yuriy Beketov, which violates the guarantees provided for by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
As a lawyer, I demand an immediate, unscheduled, comprehensive inspection of the legality of the actions and/or inactions of the Head of the Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre, Major S. E. Starenky (regarding the failure to provide adequate medical care to prisoner Yu. A. Beketov and others), and the Head of the detention centre's medical unit, N. V. Gumenny, with the mandatory involvement of the prisoners' lawyers and relatives.
Yours sincerely, Lawyer Veremeenko,
representative of Yu. A. Beketov at the European Court of Human Rights
tel. 050-947-5564
P.S. Gentlemen, do not forget that a pre-trial detention centre is a place where anyone can end up. It is not necessary to have committed any crimes for that to happen. (According to statistics, 50% of detention centre prisoners are soon released, if they survive...).