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BBC exposes jailers at Russia's 'torture prisons' in Ukraine

newsJul 7, 202620380

A BBC World Service investigation has identified jailers and officials, including Yurii Temerbek, accused of torture, sexual violence and other abuses in secret Russian-run detention centres in occupied parts of Ukraine. Liudmyla Huseinova says she was seized in October 2019, held for three years and 13 days, and repeatedly mistreated, including a sexual assault she says occurred in the Izolyatsia detention centre. BBC named Temerbek, a 56-year-old former local traffic policeman who joined Russian-backed separatists, and uncovered details about two other men survivors accuse of abusing detainees; the men appear to be living with their families in Russia and occupied Ukraine. Survivors describe detention conditions of constant standing from 06:00 to 22:00, bright lights at night, beatings, and degrading treatment such as pinching accompanied by mocking remarks, and one detainee quoted an offender saying "It's not a peach... a raisin." The UN human rights office says torture and ill-treatment in these centres is "systematic and widespread" and documents beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and sexual violence. The UN added Russia to a list of countries suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict zones in May this year, a move Russia dismissed as "groundless lies" and the Kremlin has accused the OHCHR of bias. Ukrainian authorities say more than 16,000 civilians have been taken captive or disappeared; survivors told the BBC that publicly naming alleged perpetrators is a step toward holding them to account and achieving justice.

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