Kherson prisoners deported to Russian colonies and tortured – human rights defenders
Prisoners from Kherson were deported to the territory of the Russian Federation a week before the occupiers’ retreat, reports the human rights project ‘Gulagu.net’. According to human rights defenders, more than 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners have been transferred to Russian institutions.
In particular, on 5–6 November, a ‘brutal reception’ of a prison convoy took place at IK-14 in Krasnodar Krai. The colony’s management and special forces stripped the Ukrainians naked and beat them en masse in the prison club. Witnesses report numerous injuries, swollen eyes, and lacerations among the convicts. The administration is currently trying to delete the video archive of these events. As of 9 November, 253 Ukrainian citizens had been brought to this colony alone. Convoys have also been recorded arriving in Volgograd Oblast (IK-26).
Earlier, in May, the occupiers had already used force in the Kherson remand centre, killing one of the inmates. A study by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group notes that the failure to evacuate penitentiary institutions in the Kherson region in a timely manner led to the helplessness of both staff and convicts, the loss of property, and the seizure of the facilities by the enemy. According to KHPG experts, a sense of abandonment in some cases prompted the staff to collaborate with the occupiers.