Former political prisoner from Crimea reports being beaten in TCC

Former political prisoner from the occupied Crimea Volodymyr Balukh said that he was beaten in the Kyiv Central Detention Center after being forcibly brought there. According to him, the incident could be related to his public activity and attending political trials.

This was reported by Suspilne.

According to him, on March 20, he was beaten at the Shevchenkivskyi District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support in Kyiv. According to him, this could have been planned in advance and was connected with his active participation in court hearings related to political cases. Balukh 's lawyers appealed to law enforcement officers with statements about the illegal detention.

During a meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada on March 27, he explained that he was in court that day in the case of Roman Chervinsky. After that, he was asked to come to the Pechersk District Police Department to provide explanations for allegedly insulting the prosecutor. At the police station, he said, he was met by law enforcement officers who said he was wanted, and then taken to the TCC.

Balukh claimed that he was forced into a minibus without checking his documents, his phone was taken away and he was held in the room for more than two hours, and in total he spent about 21 hours there. According to him, during his stay at the center, he was told that there was no information about his disability in the electronic database. Subsequently, he was referred to the military medical commission, and an administrative report was drawn up on the alleged foul language, which he denies.

According to the former political prisoner, the conflict escalated in the evening, when he repeatedly asked to return the phone. He noted that after a verbal argument, one of the heads of the institution took him into the room, where force was used - the man was hit in the jaw and bruised his chest.

The ex-prisoner's lawyers filed a statement with the police. During the commission's meeting, Artem Novov, a prosecutor at the Kyiv Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Defense of the Central Region, said that he had learned about the situation from the media. According to him, information is currently being collected from the TCC, the National Police and law enforcement agencies, and measures are being taken to speed up the investigation.

At the same time, the Kyiv TCC claims that there was no beating and claims that they have checked Balukh 's documents and sent him to the military medical commission.

His persecution began after the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. He openly demonstrated his pro-Ukrainian position, including hanging the national flag on his house. In 2017, he was convicted on charges of possession of ammunition, and later the sentence was revised to impose a new punishment. In September 2019, Balukh returned to Ukraine as part of a detainee exchange with other political prisoners.

Also, the Odesa Regional Territorial Center for Manning and Social Support initiated an official inspection due to a woman's statement about the beating of her and her child.

Анна Бальчінос