130–135 PEOPLE DIE IN UKRAINIAN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION CENTRES EVERY YEAR

Nina Karpachova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, believes that the prosecutor’s office is acting ineffectively in preventing and investigating incidents of torture by police officers and the State Department for the Execution of Sentences.
As reported by an UNIAN correspondent, the ombudsman stated this today (26 June – Ed.) at a press conference at UNIAN.
“The role of the prosecutor’s office in overcoming torture and conducting prompt investigations is extremely ineffective,” she said, adding that courts, in turn, “lack the courage to make tough decisions” regarding those guilty of such a shameful phenomenon as torture.
At the same time, N. Karpachova noted that there has been some progress over the last few years in reducing the frequency of torture applied to detainees. “However, as of today, the statistics of appeals to the ombudsman (regarding torture – UNIAN) are not decreasing: on average, we receive about 1,300 appeals per year from people who have been subjected to torture or from their relatives,” said N. Karpachova.
In her view, the main reasons for the use of torture by the police are the unprofessionalism of staff, the crime detection quotas that still exist within the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, and the inability of a lawyer to be present from the moment a person is detained.
At the same time, she supported the UN’s demands for Ukraine to eliminate detention rooms in district police stations, as these are precisely where illegal methods of pressure are most often used against people.
“I fully support the UN’s demand that police detention rooms be closed,” said N. Karpachova. She added that she also advocates for reducing the maximum detention period from 72 to 48 hours.
Furthermore, the ombudsman expressed the opinion that a preventive independent monitoring body should be created in Ukraine to make torture impossible, and “we are ready to become part of such a mechanism.” N. Karpachova also believes that medical institutions that conduct forensic examinations should be removed from the subordination of law enforcement agencies and transferred to a specially created state department to prevent influence on the results of medical examinations.
Touching on the topic of mortality in pre-trial detention centres, N. Karpachova noted that the primary reasons for this unacceptable situation are the failure of detention centre staff and those overseeing prisoners to perform their official duties properly.
In particular, monitoring by the Human Rights Commissioner has established that, since 2004, 130–135 people have died annually in pre-trial detention centres.
Based on the above, the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s Office once again demands that the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Department for the Execution of Sentences immediately develop a programme to eliminate the flagrant facts leading to gross human rights violations.