“Beatings and torture continue unabated in the Ukraine in spite of the new Criminal Procedure Code adopted by the government late last year. No concrete steps have been taken to set up an independent police accountability mechanism, allowing the police to get away with shocking levels of mistreatment of detainees,” said David Diaz-Jogeix, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.
“In a new report, Ukraine: Don’t stop halfway: Government must use new Criminal Procedure Code to end torture, Amnesty International examines new cases of torture and other ill-treatment and calls on the government to seize the opportunity created by the new Criminal Procedure Code to establish a State Investigation Bureau as an effective deterrent to would-be torturers among the police.
The report brings to light new cases of police torture, highlighting how issues raised in previous reports are continuing in the Ukraine. Out of 114,474 complaints made to prosecutors about police treatment in 2012, only 1,750 were investigated, leading to only 320 prosecution cases being opened against 438 police officers.
The Prosecutor’s office is failing to conduct effective investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. Prosecutors work with police officers to solve ordinary crimes on a daily basis creating an inherent conflict of interest in asking them to investigate complaints against the police,” says the statement.
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