Again militia tortures people
12.12.2001
A Lugansk dweller Vladimir Tarasiuk stayed for fifty days in a surgical and lung departments of a hospital after one day of staying in the Artiomovsk district militia precinct of Lugansk.
Three plain-clothed cops came to Tarasiuk’s home and proposed him to come to the precinct for a talk. Tarasiuk, who did not feel that he was guilty in anything, quietly agreed. But the first question that he heard in the precinct was: ’Why have you killed the doll?’
He was explained that they accused him of murdering a woman that had been committed in spring in his neighborhood. Tarasiuk naturally affirmed that he did not know either the place or the time of the murder and had nothing in common with it.
The militiamen decided that the talk was fruitless and began to draw the confession by more ’reliable’ methods. Beside bare fists they used a gas mask and a steel bar. They switched on music to jam the sound of blows and screams of the tortured victim. They were beating the victim from morning till night and threatened to take him to the park of culture and rest and finish him there. In the evening Tarasiuk was put facedown and was lifted by the wrists handcuffed on the back (it was called rack in the old times); at the same time he was beaten on the ribcage. Being afraid that they would beat him to death, Tarasiuk agreed to confess the crime of which he was not guilty. His torturers were kind enough to give him the opportunity to write the voluntarily confession and that he had come to militia on his own will. They said to him that this would facilitate his lot.
While Tarasiuk was writing the confession, supporting his right hand with his left one because he could not hold the pen, he was given a sandwich and a pack of cigarettes. They said: ’We are not beasts. Have the sandwich’. The rest of the night the arrested spent in a cell.
He was lucky in the morning. V. Konstantinov, a deputy of the Artiomovsk district prosecutor, to whom Tarasiuk was taken with his ’confession’ and with the report on the interrogation, having seen his state, called for a motor ambulance. Here is the excerpt of the medical conclusion No. 5029 given by doctors of the 3rd town hospital: ’… diagnosis: the closed trauma of the thorax. Simple fractures of six ribs on the right. Closed double fractures of 6, 7, 8, 9 ribs on the left. Hypodermic emphysema. Contusion of the front abdominal wall. Contusion of the right kidney. Paresis of the right radial nerve. Multiple bruises on the chest and face. Posttraumatic exudative pleurisy’.
According to doctors, such traumas as double fracture of ribs happen during the road accidents, but usually not as a result of beating. I recollected the case when a man was battered to death in Antratsit militia – he had his chest smashed. Is it a result of special training? I am sure that potential militiamen must be tested for cruelty, and the positive test must mean the professional inability.
By now the militiamen, who beat Tarasiuk, have been dismissed, and a criminal case is started for inflicting injuries of ’medium gravity’ according to Article 166 of the Criminal Code (misuse of power). According to the prosecutor, the former militiamen would also be accused of illegal detainment and illegal holding in custody. The reason is that no evidence at all exists that Tarasiuk had anything in common with the murder. On the contrary Tarasiuk is a quiet man with higher education, who is characterized by all as a respectable law-abiding man. The exception is made by his neighbors, who have a conflict with Tarasiuk, since he persecutes them at court.
This fact intimidated me because I am an initiator of some court affairs, while not all murders are disclosed in Severodonetsk, and by ’intelligent’s’ ribs would hardly stand a third-degree interrogation.
We are glad for Tarasiuk. He was lucky: he remained alive and even will not be condemned for the crime he never committed. But many people in our country were not so fortunate.
Three plain-clothed cops came to Tarasiuk’s home and proposed him to come to the precinct for a talk. Tarasiuk, who did not feel that he was guilty in anything, quietly agreed. But the first question that he heard in the precinct was: ’Why have you killed the doll?’
He was explained that they accused him of murdering a woman that had been committed in spring in his neighborhood. Tarasiuk naturally affirmed that he did not know either the place or the time of the murder and had nothing in common with it.
The militiamen decided that the talk was fruitless and began to draw the confession by more ’reliable’ methods. Beside bare fists they used a gas mask and a steel bar. They switched on music to jam the sound of blows and screams of the tortured victim. They were beating the victim from morning till night and threatened to take him to the park of culture and rest and finish him there. In the evening Tarasiuk was put facedown and was lifted by the wrists handcuffed on the back (it was called rack in the old times); at the same time he was beaten on the ribcage. Being afraid that they would beat him to death, Tarasiuk agreed to confess the crime of which he was not guilty. His torturers were kind enough to give him the opportunity to write the voluntarily confession and that he had come to militia on his own will. They said to him that this would facilitate his lot.
While Tarasiuk was writing the confession, supporting his right hand with his left one because he could not hold the pen, he was given a sandwich and a pack of cigarettes. They said: ’We are not beasts. Have the sandwich’. The rest of the night the arrested spent in a cell.
He was lucky in the morning. V. Konstantinov, a deputy of the Artiomovsk district prosecutor, to whom Tarasiuk was taken with his ’confession’ and with the report on the interrogation, having seen his state, called for a motor ambulance. Here is the excerpt of the medical conclusion No. 5029 given by doctors of the 3rd town hospital: ’… diagnosis: the closed trauma of the thorax. Simple fractures of six ribs on the right. Closed double fractures of 6, 7, 8, 9 ribs on the left. Hypodermic emphysema. Contusion of the front abdominal wall. Contusion of the right kidney. Paresis of the right radial nerve. Multiple bruises on the chest and face. Posttraumatic exudative pleurisy’.
According to doctors, such traumas as double fracture of ribs happen during the road accidents, but usually not as a result of beating. I recollected the case when a man was battered to death in Antratsit militia – he had his chest smashed. Is it a result of special training? I am sure that potential militiamen must be tested for cruelty, and the positive test must mean the professional inability.
By now the militiamen, who beat Tarasiuk, have been dismissed, and a criminal case is started for inflicting injuries of ’medium gravity’ according to Article 166 of the Criminal Code (misuse of power). According to the prosecutor, the former militiamen would also be accused of illegal detainment and illegal holding in custody. The reason is that no evidence at all exists that Tarasiuk had anything in common with the murder. On the contrary Tarasiuk is a quiet man with higher education, who is characterized by all as a respectable law-abiding man. The exception is made by his neighbors, who have a conflict with Tarasiuk, since he persecutes them at court.
This fact intimidated me because I am an initiator of some court affairs, while not all murders are disclosed in Severodonetsk, and by ’intelligent’s’ ribs would hardly stand a third-degree interrogation.
We are glad for Tarasiuk. He was lucky: he remained alive and even will not be condemned for the crime he never committed. But many people in our country were not so fortunate.