Prisoners: an intoxicated SIZO head beat his wards and falsified documents

According to information from the mother of one of the prisoners held in the Odesa pre-trial detention centre, on 10 June, the head of the Odesa SIZO personally beat his wards while in a state of alcoholic intoxication.

The editorial office of the IA “Reporter” was contacted by the mother of Oleh Merabovych Keshelava, born in 1973, who is being held under guard and has no prior convictions. According to her, her son and 3 other cellmates were subjected to physical violence on 10 June at approximately 18:00 by the head of the Odesa SIZO, Yu. Riabtsev. The incident occurred as a result of a conflict involving one of Oleh Keshelava's (pictured) cellmates, 19-year-old native of Transnistria Maksym Shulekin. The latter was demanded to apologize for a conflict that occurred earlier with one of the SIZO staff members. “His hands were pinched by the ‘feeding hatch’ (a specially sliding window in the cell door, through which food is passed – ed.) after he asked to ventilate the cell,” the mother of the beaten man, Valentyna Keshelava, told us.



“On the evening of 10 June, they were called to the search room one by one and forced to apologize for the misconduct of this 19-year-old boy. They refused to apologize. The head of the SIZO, Yu. Riabtsev, personally hit my son in the face. He smelled strongly of alcohol,” the mother of Oleh Keshelava knows the details of the incident from her son and his other cellmates, who were immediately separated to different buildings of the SIZO, and the 19-year-old offender Maksym Shulekin was sent to the punishment cell.

In addition, V. Keshelava reported that a local doctor came to her son, but the entry in the registration journal was erased in her son's presence with correction fluid. “They gave him an injection; he has a bruise on his face; we will not be able to prove that a doctor was called to him. All four wrote a statement about the beating and demanded an examination be conducted,” says the mother of the detainee O. Keshelava, who has been in the SIZO for 1 year and 9 months. The name of the third beaten person is also known—Mykola Mykhailovych Nilinchuk, an Odessan, 27 years old. According to O. Keshelava, Yu. Riabtsev hit the latter on the head with his fists.

Also, the mother of the detained person claims that her son has been beaten more than once in district departments and IZO (temporary detention centres), where “confessions” were beaten out of him. Consequently, the young man developed chronic illnesses; in addition, at 17, he underwent heart surgery. In one of the district departments, O. Keshelava had clinical death; however, according to the mother, these facts are carefully hidden, and to please the investigation, the SIZO staff falsified medical reports. The mother of the detainee is ready to provide the corresponding documents. In addition, according to Valentyna, her son’s rhesus factor was incorrectly indicated, and in the case of a need for a blood transfusion, he would simply die.

According to V. Keshelava, her son is being denied medical assistance, despite the fact that there is a conclusion from the judge of the Kyiv District Court, Luniachenko. He ordered the detainee to be taken for a forensic medical examination. “Two weeks ago, Yu. Riabtsev called my son to him and said: ‘Go and get treated in Israel; I am not your father to be treating you,’” the mother of the beaten man told us.

V. Keshelava has written a statement addressed to the Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor of the Odesa region with the demand to sort out the situation.

We recall that on 30 May, a spontaneous rally of relatives of prisoners held under guard took place near the Odesa SIZO, where they demanded the improvement of detention conditions and complained about the lack of medical assistance and cruel treatment on the territory of the SIZO.