Electric shocks to the genitals, water torture and other brutal violence have been revealed in the investigation of the torture centers found in Hersonis.
A team of researchers consisting of Ukrainian and international lawyers has been able to find out by interviewing the victims what kind of atrocities the Russian guards did to civilians in Kherson, located in southern Ukraine. 20 torture chambers were found in the city, which were maintained by the Russian administration during the occupation of the city.
Based on evidence gathered by a group called Mobile Justice, the torture centers were not randomly established, but planned and financed by the Russian state. The Russian security service FSB and the prison authorities were responsible for the operation of the centers.
A British person writes about the legal team’s research results The Guardian magazine (you will switch to another service).
Herson was added to the grim list
Professor studying Russian penal institutions Judith Ballot from the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute says he is horrified, but not surprised by the brutality revealed in Hersonissos.
– My first reaction to the news was that this is not surprising at all. Soon after the annexation of Crimea and the eastern parts of Ukraine, we started receiving reports about FSB-run prisons and other places where prisoners were tortured, Pallot tells in a phone interview.
In the past, Russian soldiers’ brutality against Ukrainian civilians has been revealed, for example, near the capital Kyiv in Bucha and Irpin, as well as in Izjum in eastern Ukraine.
– Now Herson can be added to the same list of places where people have been tortured and deadly human rights crimes committed against prisoners, Pallot states.
According to the group of researchers, people with connections to the Ukrainian state and civil society were imprisoned in the Kherson torture centers. Those imprisoned included office holders, civic activists, journalists and teachers.
The researchers interviewed more than a thousand people in Hersonis. The stories painted a picture of brutal violence. The guards beat the prisoners with, among other things, electric shocks and water torture.
According to Pallotti, the forms of torture used have been developed over the years in Russian prisons.
– There have been reports of similar torture in Russian prisons over the past two decades.
– One example is the use of telephones in electric torture. It doesn’t leave much of a mark on the person being tortured. Hooded prisoners are also beaten with rubber bands on the back of the seat. In Russia, it is important that torture leaves as few traces as possible on the victim.
According to researchers, the goal of the torture in Kherson was to terrorize and subjugate Ukrainians and to eliminate resistance and destroy Ukrainian identity.
Consistent persecution of civilians
Professor of Criminal Law Kimmo Nuotio The University of Helsinki considers the revelation of torture centers to be a significant matter.
– This paints a picture of the conscious persecution of the civilian population, Nuotio states in a telephone interview.
He says that the brutalities that have been revealed so far against Ukrainian civilians by Russia have mainly been connected in some way to Russia’s military operations.
– There are new features here. The state connection is clearer than before. What is outrageous here is the systematic approach, i.e. if the FSB and the occupation administration have organized together to create a network of torture centers to which ordinary people have been taken.
According to Pallot too, according to the revealed information, the operation seems systematic. Kherson’s torturers have not been furious and undisciplined soldiers who take prisoners at the front and torture or execute them.
– This looks planned. The perpetrators have not been soldiers who fought on the front line.
– The centers have been made, as it were, formally legal, when they have been transferred to the responsibility of the Russian prison authorities.
Electric shocks to the genitals
Survivors of the centers interviewed by The Guardian said that the torturers, among other things, gave electric shocks to the genitals of some male prisoners.
Some kind of re-education was also attempted, as the prisoners were forced to learn pro-Russian slogans, poems and songs.
At least one of the torture centers investigated was located in the basement of an office building. The other was a former youth prison.
More than a thousand people have provided evidence of the events to the investigative team. More than 400 people disappeared in Kherson during the Russian occupation. It is not known whether the missing were killed or transported to Russia.
Russia occupied Kherson for eight months, from the beginning of last March until November 11, when Ukrainian forces regained control of the city.
Pallot estimates that Kherson can be a central location for war crimes against civilians, as there were many protests in the city when the invaders arrived.
– Unfortunately, Herson is unlikely to be the last place where something like this is revealed.
International law obliges to protect civilians
Nuotio states that international humanitarian law obliges warring parties to protect the civilian population. The atrocities that have now been revealed were committed by the occupation administration.
– Here, a regime of terror has been created in the occupied area, which has held the civilian population in its grip. It tells about systematic politics.
– We are talking about very serious things, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is the deliberate and deliberate intimidation and destruction of the civilian population as part of a strategy of warfare.
The legal team that investigated the Herson atrocities is a British lawyer By Wayne Jordash founded and managed by The group helps the Ukrainian Attorney General in the investigation of Russian war crimes.
More than 70,000 suspected war crimes have been reported in Ukraine so far. Most of them will be processed in Ukrainian courts.
The evidence collected by Ukrainian and international researchers from the areas under Russian control and later liberated by Ukraine tells about large-scale crimes by Russian soldiers, such as executions, torture, rape and forced transfers.
The International War Crimes Court ICC, based in The Hague, Holland, will focus on high-profile war crime suspects. The legal proceedings in these cases take time.
– It is possible that issues related to the whole of Herson will still be discussed in The Hague. The basic problem is how to catch the perpetrators. The more systematic the operation has been, the higher the response rate, says Nuotio.
So far, the ICC has not issued any arrest warrants for suspected war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia is not a member of the ICC, but it has participated in other international agreements.
– If Russia were a normal country, it would investigate and accuse the suspects, but Russia is not a normal country”, Nuotio states.
In this article you can read the latest information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine