Over three years, the Ombudsman's Office conducted more than 1,500 visits to places of detention in Ukraine, which revealed cases of beatings and torture of imprisoned citizens of our state. As a result of these actions, about three dozen criminal proceedings were opened, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said during a press conference, according to a UNN correspondent.
We constantly monitor all places of detention in Ukraine. Over three years, we have made more than 1,500 monitoring visits, 543 in the previous year. Unfortunately, we found cases of physical torture and beatings of Ukrainian citizens in places of detention. Based on our findings, about three dozen criminal proceedings have been opened
The human rights activist noted that many violations were recorded in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center. In particular, its employees received combat payments, although they were never on the front line.
We have many questions regarding the Kyiv pre-trial detention center. For a year and a half, we sent appeals to the State Audit Service. Finally, they checked the activities of the Kyiv pre-trial detention center and found abuses amounting to approximately 10 million hryvnias. This included the accrual of combat payments to employees who, according to our data, were not on the line of contact with the Russian enemy
The Ombudsman added that the biggest violation in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center is the violation of detention conditions. The government refuses to allocate funds to rectify the situation.
We found information that one of the biggest violations is undignified conditions of detention. When we constantly, every year, send recommendations to the Ministry of Justice, to the government, about increasing funding for the maintenance of Ukrainian citizens in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center, we always get the answer – there are no funds
At the same time, he added that the state budget of Ukraine spends funds on compensation payments to prisoners based on decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
Based on 77 decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, Ukraine must pay more than one million euros to prisoners in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center due to violations of detention rights. And these people continue to appeal to the ECHR, it will make decisions in favor of Ukrainian citizens, and the state budget of Ukraine will pay more and more funds
Addition
Lubinets reported that as of today, an investigation is underway regarding the execution of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers. Over the past year, this number has drastically increased.