Kharkov: Place Where Police Terror Reins Supreme

Some time ago Kharkov was leading the civil protest against the Kiev junta. Now it appears to fall silent forever. The city is often called the second capital of Ukraine and it may launch a new wave of protests, something the new regime is really afraid of. Late on April 8 almost 70 anti-Maidan protesters were arrested to face politically motivated trials in July.  Today those who aspire to become part of Europe make dissenters face trials. The political opposition should be quelled by doing away with those who disagree. Now they try to install this kind of order throughout the whole Ukraine.

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Sergey Udayev, a journalist, was arrested on April 8. He is accused of participating in an attack against the Kharkov regional administration building.  To increase pressure he was transferred from an investigation cell of pre-trial detention center to a penitentiary where the criminals serve their sentences.  But he is a suspect not a prisoner; there has been no court ruling in his case. To protest the action Udayev cut his veins. All appeals and protests related to this human rights violation go unanswered. Called to face trial on July 29 Sergey Udayev read out a statement of protest and sent letters to presidents of Ukraine and Russia, the head of Ukrainian Security Service, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, the General Consul of the Russian Federation, the ombudsman at Verkhovna Rada…as a result, the court ruled to prolong his arrest without a right for bail till October 2. His wife Elena says he is kept in the same cell with real criminals, being under constant pressure he is threatened. They also threaten the members of his family. “Sometimes it seems to me I’m counting the last days,” she says. Legally Udayev is a Russian citizen: he had his residence registered in Crimea at the moment of March 16 referendum. When Crimea became part of Russia he became a citizen of the Russian Federation though he had no time to get the passport being detained.

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There are nine people from Luhansk kept behind bars in a Kharkov pre-trial detention center.  For instance, clergyman Vladimir Maretsky, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), abbot of St. Nicholas temple of village Raygorodka, Novoaydar district of Luhansk region. He is accused of involvement in terrorist activities.

Father Vladimir was arrested on May 25 together with 13 other suspects. The detained were made lay down on pavement faces to earth and beaten. Some were maimed. They were transported by helicopter to the Kharkov pre-trial detention center and tortured. Father was sure he won’t make it through and started to pray for his soul. He is still subject to tortures being interrogated with no lawyer present. He has kidney trouble; on May 26 he was to go through a serious surgery but was put behind bars instead. Now he is threatened with a sentence ranging from 7 to 11 years of prison.

They continue to torment the clergyman, they use force to make him confess and say that he was armed and shot at a poll station during the recent presidential election. The lawyers requested to appoint another SBU (the Security Service of Ukraine) investigator. The judge refused to do it.

Konstantin Dolgov, a Kharkov-based journalist, a co-chairman of the People’s Front of Novorossia, who follows the situation, expresses concern over the fate of the detained people from Luhansk and their lawyers. “It’s hard to predict the fate of those who were detained after the Luhansk events.”

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Alexey Samoilov, rector of Kharkov International Slavic University, PH.D., an associate professor of the European University, was treated with extreme cruelty. They broke into his flat and beaten up with his small children looking. They tortured him. Maimed he was in no condition to face trial. On June 29 he was put under arrest charged with complicity in terrorist activities. According to medical diagnosis, he suffers from concussion, subcutaneous hemorrhage and red left eye. His eye cannot see and his ear cannot hear. The tortures resulted in   chronic diseases, but instead of hospital he is put into a pre-trial detention center in Poltava. Anna Rakovskaya – Samoilova, his wife, wrote a letter to the head of OSCE mission in Ukraine saying her husband is a victim of gross violations of human rights and the abuse of power by Ukraine’s Security Service operatives.

Sergey Kochetov, a photographer who shot pictures of protests in Kharkov, disappeared on July 1. Three days later it became known he was detained and then set free after giving a written undertaking not to leave the city. Andrei Sosnovsky, an anti-Maidan movement activist and the head of Kharkov office of Association of Ukrainian Citizens, and Alexey Lukyanov, activist of Young Eurasia movement, disappeared the very same way. Ukrainian special services have failed to frame up charges against the detained. Now they are investigating “the case of Samoilov group.”

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One more fate – Spartak Golovachev.  He is well-known Ukrainian athlete, the national free diving champion. He was training for taking part in the European championship.  By the end of April he was detained while taking part in humanitarian mission to transfer medicine and foodstuffs to Slavyansk.

Lawyer Dmitry Tichonenkov defends the Kharkov activists. According to him, 65 people were detained in the building of regional administration suspected of taking part in mass unrest that took place on April 7-8 at night when the building was set of fire. That is Golovachev is suspected of taking part in the events that had taken place a day before when people were entering the building.

Upon getting news that some activists among those who were detained during the mopping-up operation in the administrative building were beaten, Golovachev went on a hunger strike. He did not eat for 13 days (4 days without water) to lose 25 kg. “I was arrested on April 30 to be forcibly kept inside the building of investigative department.  An advisor of Avakov, the Minister of Interior, was in the neighboring building giving orders not to set me free” tells Golovachev.

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Dmitry Pigorev is kept behind bars together with Golovachev. Late on April 8 he happened to be near the building on an editor’s assignment. Since then he is kept in a pre-trial detention center. Alexander Shadrin, his lawyer, says, “The details are vague. Many of those being detained were at other places at the time of alleged crime. It is corroborated by before the trial investigation”.

There are framed up cases of Tigran Terteryan, Egor Logvinov and other Kharkov public activists. At the same time the real killers and terrorists, who shot dead local dwellers Artem Zhudov and Alexey Sharov from Dnepropetrovsk, are still at large.

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Deviating from the Kharkov events, it is worth to be noted that something egregious happened in Odessa. On June 27, the Security Service arrested Inna Avdeeva, a young lawyer. Her guilt was posting a number of times the words “Long Live Novorossia!” to a social network using her page.  The court ruled to keep her behind bars till August 21. They are preparing a charge to accuse her of terrorist activities. She is expected to be handed down a sentence of 12 years.

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The police terror in Ukraine is in full swing. Anything will do to break the spirit of those who rebuff political and ideological dictate. Konstantin Kevorkyan is the head of First Capital TV channel and member of Kharkiv City Hall was expelled from the Ukraine’s National Association of journalists.  Stanislav Minakov, a member of Russian Authors Society and member of the International PEN centre, was expelled from the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine. The both expulsions took place in July. Before that the both men had been interrogated as the investigation of former head of the Kharkiv region proceeded.  On March 10, 2014, former city governor Mikhail Dobkin was arrested on charges of leading a separatist movement. His case is investigated by the Organized Crime Department was established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Today Donbass is not the only place where the Ukrainian authorities wage war. They exert pressure on all those who express discontent and dare to criticize the regime. Ukraine has stepped on the way to become a totalitarian state no matter it has signed an association agreement with the European Union.  The question is: does Europe really believe that the new police state established in Ukraine meets its interests?

Source: Strategic Culture Foundation