Law enforcers identify Russian executioner who mocked Kherson residents during occupation

Law enforcement officers identified a Russian Interior Ministry employee who interrogated and tortured a resident of Kherson during the occupation.

According to the police of Kherson region, in the summer of 2022, the suspect and other representatives of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs were sent to the then-occupied Kherson. the Russian offender was stationed in one of the Russian torture chambers, where civilians were illegally imprisoned and interrogated. Currently, police investigators have collected evidence against the 43-year-old Russian policeman and served him with a war crime notice in absentia.

According to Ihor Demianiuk, Head of the Department for Investigation of Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict, Kherson Police Investigation Department, after the de-occupation of Kherson, it was found that Russian law enforcement officials had set up a torture chamber in the seized premises of the temporary detention center of the regional police headquarters. One of the illegally detained persons was a civilian resident of Kherson, who was 44 years old at the time. He told law enforcement officers that on the morning of August 15, 2022, a group of armed Russian soldiers came to his home. They beat the man, and then took him to the temporary detention center and placed him in one of the detention cells. In the evening, the man was taken to one of the offices where there were three Russian invaders. They began interrogating the Kherson resident to obtain information about his cooperation with the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

A cell in the Kherson detention center where people were allegedly tortured. Photo: Taras Ibragimov / Suspilne

Having not received the desired answers to his questions, one of the Russians first inflicted more than 30 blows to the man's body with a rubber truncheon, then picked up a grinder and threatened to cut off his fingers and hands. After that, to intimidate the victim, the offender pointed a gun at him and simulated shooting him. Finally, the Russian attacker inflicted at least 15 more blows with a rubber baton. After that, the detainee was escorted back to his cell.

For almost a month, the peaceful resident of Kherson was kept in a torture chamber. He was kept in unsanitary conditions that were exhausting for the human body, unsuitable for a long stay, fed only once a day, and not provided with any hygiene products.

As a result of operational and investigative measures, officers of the Criminal Investigation Department of the regional police headquarters identified the Russian criminal. It turned out to be a 43-year-old Russian police captain who was seconded to occupied Kherson in the summer of 2022 and holds the position of state inspector of the technical supervision department of the state road safety inspection department of the intermunicipal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "Krasnoyarsk".

Investigators of the regional police headquarters under the procedural supervision of the regional prosecutor's office classified the defendant's actions as cruel treatment of a civilian and other violations of the laws and customs of war committed in collusion with other unidentified military personnel and representatives of the Russian law enforcement agencies. Currently, the defendant was served a notice of suspicion of committing a war crime in absentia. He faces eight to twelve years in prison. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

Олеся Ланцман