State Penitentiary Service special unit fighters are again maiming prisoners en masse

As has become known from unverified, but various sources, yesterday, 5 July 2011, in the afternoon, fighters of a special unit of the State Penitentiary Service committed another mass beating of convicts, this time at the 89th colony in the city of Dnipropetrovsk.

Just recently, we reported on the deployment of State Penitentiary Service special unit fighters in the materials: “Mass beating in the Simferopol SIZO”, and also “People in masks armed with automatic rifles in the Simferopol SIZO”, where we told of the deployment of special forces fighters of the State Penitentiary Service during searches of prisoners at the Simferopol SIZO, namely the intimidation of people and mass beating.

We have noted the illegality of the existence of this unit, which is used for cruel, inhuman punishment of prisoners, in our annual reports of public organizations, the latest for 2009–2010 in the section “Prisoners' Rights”.

Scientists have spoken out about the illegality of the existence of this unit; for example, in his publication “The existence and activity of special units and rapid response groups for crime detection”, Candidate of Law Iryna Yakovets talks about the functioning of a special unit that was formed for anti-terrorist purposes, but the direction of activity of this structure is aimed at fulfilling other principles that have nothing to do with terrorism and mass disturbances. “And such prevention is carried out by a special anti-terrorist unit, the regulation for which was approved by the Department's order of 10.10.2005 No. 167 (registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on 16.02.2006 under No. 138/12012). Everything seems fine, but point 3.5 of this order, among the functions of the anti-terrorist unit, provided for conducting inspections and searches of convicts and persons taken into custody, their belongings, inspections of other persons and their belongings, vehicles that are on the territories of institutions of the penal system, enterprises of institutions for the execution of sentences, and on territories adjacent to them, as well as the seizure of prohibited items and documents. It is precisely this that has, in practice, become the main work of this anti-terrorist unit.

Currently, the decision on state registration of the mentioned order has been cancelled on the basis of the Opinion of the Ministry of Justice No. 15/88 of 24.12.2007, and it was excluded from the State Register of Normative Legal Acts on 14.01.2008. Instead, practice shows that the cancellation of the state registration of an act regarding special purpose units in no way indicates the disbandment of the latter; at least, this is what is evident from official statements by the Department's leadership.”

At the same time, let us recall the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case “Davydov and Others v. Ukraine”, in which the Court recognized Ukraine's violation of Article 3 of the European Convention regarding the mass beating of convicts in the Izyaslav Correctional Colony No. 58 in 2001–2002.

A case of a similar nature, “Karabeta v. Ukraine”, is currently under communication between the Court and the Government of Ukraine.

But despite the decisive conclusions of the European Court regarding the inadmissibility of using military formations for the intimidation and beating of prisoners, we are observing a practice of the expansion of the involvement of the mentioned military unit for searches in institutions for the execution of sentences and SIZOs with the aim of intimidating convicts and illegal violence.

The fact is that in connection with the latent nature of this corpus delicti, i.e., the mass beating of people, which is evidenced by the closed nature of the system and the impossibility of obtaining confirmation or refutation of information about the intimidation of convicts, cases of illegal violence, in addition to the official version of the State Penitentiary Service, the lack of effective investigation on the part of the Prosecutor's Office of such cases—which has also been repeatedly stated in the decisions of the European Court—raises concern regarding reports of increasingly frequent cases of the deployment of special units in institutions subordinate to the State Penitentiary Service.

As it has become known to us, on 05.07.11, special unit fighters of the State Penitentiary Service were deployed during a mass beating and intimidation of convicts at the 89th colony in the city of Dnipropetrovsk.

The beating was facilitated, and perhaps even actively participated in, by the institution's staff, namely:

1. Major of the State Penitentiary Service (DPS) Lehkobyk Valentyn Valentynovych, responsible for the sector in which the cells of life-sentenced prisoners, the enhanced control sector, the cell-type premises, and the disciplinary isolation ward are located.

2. Lieutenant of the DPS Khomenko Andriy Leonidovych, an employee of the institution's internal security.

3. Nasevych Oleksandr Mykolaiovych, head of the unit.

4. Lieutenant Colonel of the DPS Martynov Ihor Hennadiiovych, acting head of the institution.

The following convicts were severely beaten:

1. Kaluhin Yuriy Ivanovych, who is serving a life sentence;

2. Dzesiv Oleksandr Viktorovych;

3. Urtsov Hryhoriy Hryhoriovych;

4. Tymoshenko Serhiy Oleksandrovych;

5. Pohorelov Anatoliy Ivanovych;

6. Dudnik Mykhailo Eduardovych;

7. Bondarenko Roman Volodymyrovych;

8. Isakov Oleksandr Yevheniiovych;

9. Kostetskyi Andriy Mykhailovych;

10. Kutliaiev Vadym Ivanovych;

11. Ryzhykh Oleksandr Volodymyrovych;

12. Mushynskyi Viacheslav Ivanovych;

13. Heraskin Oleksandr Valeriiovych;

14. Stoian Volodymyr Yevheniiovych;

15. Romanenko Dmytro Olehovych.

We attempted to find out about this event from the executive apparatus of the State Penitentiary Service. By phone (044) 461-86-00, we managed to get through to the DPS reception. Having introduced himself as Andriy Mykolaiovych Velykyi, the person from the reception reported that he personally knew nothing about the beating of prisoners and advised us to call (044) 207-03-75. We called the indicated number; on the line, a man introduced himself as legal adviser Myrhorodskyi Mykola Mykolaiovych, who noted that the central apparatus of the State Penitentiary Service knew nothing about the events at the 89th colony in the city of Dnipropetrovsk. All phones of the State Penitentiary Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region, for some reason, were not answering or sounded short beeps.

It was also impossible to get through to the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office for the same reason (none of the phones answered).

We called the reception of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine—a person, introducing herself as Nadiya Mykytivna Zarylenko, reported that on this matter, one should call (044) 280-08-84, which, by the way, also remained unreachable. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get through to the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office.

In order to confirm or refute the indicated information about another mass beating of convicts of the 89th correctional colony of the city of Dnipropetrovsk, I am personally ready to go to the scene of the event together with a prosecutorial inspection.

Programme coordinator of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group Andriy Didenko