Amsterdam, 02 August, 2023 – A team of international experts from the Mobile Justice Team, established by the humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance, has released a shocking report on the treatment of prisoners in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine. The research, which was funded by the United States, the European Union, and Britain, emphasizes the frequent use of torture and sexual abuse of detainees in improvised detention camps in the Kherson region.
Since the area was liberated from Russian control in November, the Mobile Justice Team has been collaborating closely with Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors.The Ukrainian authorities have examined almost 97,000 reports of war crimes, and 220 persons have been charged in domestic courts. High-level criminals may be held accountable for their crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is already wanted for arrest.
The Kremlin has consistently denied the criticism levelled at it for its behaviour in Ukraine, claiming that its forces were engaged in a “special military operation” to protect the country.
The latest report by the Mobile Justice Team analyzed 320 cases and witness accounts at 35 locations in the Kherson region. According to the summary, “43% of victims explicitly mentioned practices of torture in the detention centers, citing sexual violence as a common tactic imposed on them by Russian guards.”
This revelation comes after a prior report by Reuters in January, which highlighted the scale of alleged torture in Kherson. Survivors had previously recounted tactics such as electric shocks, suffocation, and other forms of physical abuse.
At least 36 victims interviewed by prosecutors for the current report mentioned the use of electrocution during interrogations, often targeting their genitals, and threats of genital mutilation. Surprisingly, one victim was even made to watch another prisoner get raped.
According to the research, detainees who were most likely to be tortured included not just military personnel but also law enforcement officers, volunteers, activists, local leaders, doctors, and teachers. The most often employed forms of torture were suffocation, waterboarding,beatings, and rape threats.
Reuters was unable to independently corroborate the claims made in the piece.
