Public denial of access to the colony confirms facts of torture—human rights defender

A representative of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group was not allowed onto the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk Penal Colony No. 89, where, according to human rights defenders, an incident involving the mass beating of prisoners occurred. Andriy Didenko, the programme coordinator of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, reported this himself to Radio Liberty.

As Andriy Didenko noted, on Thursday the colony leadership did not allow him onto the territory, despite the prosecutor’s order and the resolution of the leadership of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences in the region.

‘I have already contacted the representative of the Department in Kyiv, I have already contacted the prosecutor who gave the order for the visit to the colony. The prosecutor’s order is mandatory for execution. Yesterday it was not fulfilled, today again—that is, this is already a recurrence. The Prosecutor’s Office promises to react to the situation in the form of administrative proceedings, up to criminal liability for officials,’ noted Andriy Didenko in a comment for Radio Liberty.

Furthermore, according to him, there are all reasons to believe that the mass beating of prisoners in the colony did take place; this is confirmed by the denial of access for public representatives to the colony, as well as the photographs of beaten prisoners and their surnames, which, as Andriy Didenko stated, are in his possession.

‘There are all reasons to believe that torture took place. After all, otherwise, I would have been allowed in so that I could refute it,’ said Andriy Didenko.

On 12 July, human rights defenders disseminated information about the mass beating of prisoners by guards at the Dnipropetrovsk Colony No. 89.

The then-head of the Administration of the State Department for the Execution of Sentences in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Anatoliy Babets, refuted this information.