The system of tortures and persecution put in place by russia in Crimea is applicable in the newly occupied territories. This is the statement of Iryna BARAN EL GHALI, the international advocacy manager of the Crimean Human Rights Group, at the event of the 58th UN Human Rights Council “Torture and arbitrary detention as crimes against humanity during russia’s war in Ukraine: Justice for survivors”.
“What we have been witnessing since 2022 in the newly occupied regions of Ukraine is directly linked to the methods russia has been applying in Crimea since 2014. After the occupation of Crimea russia has been trying to control the civil society through forcible disappearances, politically motivated persecutions, tortures to get coerced “confessions” and spurious proceedings against the Ukrainian activists and the Crimean Tatars”, – Iryna BARAN EL GHALI maintains.
For instance, the CHRG has recorded the tortures almost at every case of “saboteurs and spies” trumped up against the Ukrainian activists and journalists. There are so far 82 cases concerned.
The human rights defender reminds that the russian Guard and the FSB have been using violence as the main method of “control” of the occupied population. All the recorded apprehensions are made through application of physical or psychological violence.
“SIZOs nos.1, 2 and 8 in Simferopol used for persecutions in Crimea have become places of tortures for the Ukrainians from other occupied regions. Moreover, through the evidences of the civilians abducted from Kherson region and transported to Crimea, the CHRG has ascertained that the FSB officers from Crimea participated at tortures at the places of detention in Kherson region and then trumped up the cases against such detainees in the SIZOs of Simferopol”, – the human rights defender stresses.
Iryna BARAN EL GHALI, the international advocacy manager of the Crimean Human Rights Group, at the event “11 Years of Systemic Human Rights Violations in Temporarily Occupied Crimea: What Can International Mechanisms Do?” emphasized that the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine shall work further as the violations by russia need to be systematically recorded and investigated.
