Protest in Kyiv over death of student in police custody

Around 200 students and others held a demonstration outside the Shevchenkivsky Police Station demanding that those responsible for the death of a fellow student be brought to justice and for an end to the use of torture by the police. Earlier media reports said that they were also calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Anatoly Mohylev. Their appeal begins with the words: “We don’t want to fall {the police had claimed that Ihor fell while drunk], we don’t want to die.

The protest was prompted by the death in police custody of Ihor Indilo, student of a Kyiv institute, who was taken from the hostel where he was living the night before his 20th birthday. He died of haemorrhaging and head injuries.

Those present placed flowers and wreaths in Ihor’s memory near the entry to the police station where he was taken that night.

Similar protests are to be held in 18 other Ukrainian cities. The organizers planned to demand that a special parliamentary committee be set up as well as public monitoring over the investigation into Ihor’s death. Protest coordinator, Yevhenia Malych says that the list of demands will be broadened since in that police station, as well as others throughout the country, they know of cases of rape, torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

Information from an earlier report on the Deutsche Welle Ukrainian Service and from people who took part