Three collaborators in Kharkiv Oblast that detained and beat a teen are arrested – video
Investigators issued suspicion notices to three collaborators who tortured and abused a teenager during the occupation in Kharkiv Oblast, the National Police reported.
The perpetrators illegally imprisoned 16-year-old Artur in a temporary detention center and brutally interrogated him, forcing the boy to provide information about Ukrainian politicians and civil society leaders, as well as Joint Forces Operation (JFO) members, the department said.
Unknown persons dressed in military-style tactical clothing and balaclavas, carrying automatic firearms, forced the boy into a car and took him to the temporary detention center in Kupyanskyi Police Department in August 2022, law enforcement officers said.
The three offenders threatened him with the execution of the teenager and his relatives, forced him to squat, push up from the floor, put a gas mask on his head to block his airways, and beat him.
The teen was illegally kept in a cell together with other "detainees" for 16 days and had his food and water restricted.
Artur's guardian Yulia came to the torture chamber every day with food, water, warm clothes, and blankets, though virtually none of this reached Artur, she said. The woman tried to convince the occupiers that the boy was underage and could not be detained, to no avail.
The teenager was released after 16 days but was forced to return to the police department every day to "work out". Artur remembers how he walked on foot from a nearby village to Kupyansk, where the invaders forced him to dismantle rubble, wash the vehicles of Russian soldiers, clean up garbage, wash dishes in their kitchen, and stack firewood. He was only released when the city was liberated on Sept. 8.
Russian units stationed in the torture chamber were later identified by investigators in criminal proceedings course, and their photos were found. The boy identified his offenders.
Three residents of the Kupyanskyi district, aged 28 and 32, who had sided with the occupiers, turned out to be involved in the crime. The two men are former police officers who were dismissed from the National Police for treason. They took up positions in the so-called Internal Affairs Department, illegally established by the invaders. The third is an unemployed local resident who helped the occupiers on his own initiative.
The Kharkiv Oblast Public Prosecutor Office’s investigative department notified three Kharkiv Oblast residents of the suspicion under Part 2 of Art. 28 (offence committed by several [two or more] persons who have conspired in advance), Part 1 of Art. 438 (Violation of rules of the warfare, in particular, cruel treatment of prisoners of war or civilians, use of methods of the warfare prohibited by international instruments) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CCU).
The 28- and 32-year-old former police officers were additionally informed of the suspicion under Part 7 of Art. 111−1 (collaborationism, voluntary occupation by a citizen of Ukraine of a position in illegal judicial or law enforcement bodies created in the temporarily occupied territory) of the CCU.
The suspects face up to 15 years imprisonment.
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