Jailers and officials at Russia's 'torture prisons' in Ukraine exposed by BBC
This article contains accounts of torture and sexual violence Early one October morning in 2019, a group of men jumped out of a car and
This article contains accounts of torture and sexual violence Early one October morning in 2019, a group of men jumped out of a car and grabbed Liudmyla Huseinova as she left her home. The 64-year-old says they seized her bag and threw her into the back seat, beginning what she describes as a "nightmare" in Russia's secretive detention system in parts of Ukraine it had occupied since 2014: "For three years and 13 days of my life, my soul and body were crippled." She says that among the men was Yurii Temerbek, a Ukrainian who had been a local traffic policeman and had joined the Russian-backed separatists.
Temerbek – a husband, father and grandfather, now aged 56 - was there again, two weeks later, she says, watching as a man with a Russian accent sexually assaulted her in a notorious detention centre. A BBC World Service investigation has identified Temerbek, and uncovered details about two other men accused of abusing detainees, shedding light on a system that operates almost completely out of reach of Ukrainian and international justice.
The men appear to now be living ordinary lives with their families in Russia and occupied Ukraine. Survivors see revealing their identities as a step towards holding them accountable. Liudmyla
says that if the men she accuses of abuse aren't found and imprisoned, "then, justice for me will be their names as criminals, and torturers, will be known to their children".
The BriefWire