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fullscreen UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards. Archive image. Photo: Martial Trezzini/AP/TT
Russia’s armed forces and groups linked to the forces are systematically and deliberately using torture in occupied areas of Ukraine, according to a UN expert.
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, says she drew the conclusion after a visit to Ukraine in September.
– The number of credible allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (suggests that) torture is part of Russia’s warfare, Edwards told the UN Human Rights Council.
– These heinous crimes do not appear to be either random or isolated events.
Ukrainian prosecutors have told Edwards that around 103,000 investigations linked to war crimes and crimes against humanity are ongoing, 90 percent of which are registered as torture cases.
The same methods are said to be carried out around various occupied areas.
She has repeated an appeal to Moscow to “issue a strong and unequivocal directive . . . that torture is never allowed and that it will be punished”.