Bankova Prisoner: Yaroslav Prytulenko

Yaroslav Prytulenko was detained in custody for 2 months despite the fact that the allegations against him are based on statements for police officers who were not named and did not appear in court

21-year-old Yaroslav Prytulenko works in a shop. .  His mother says that he went to the demonstration on Dec 1 together with friends.  She was phoned at around midnight and told that he was at the police station.  She thought it was a joke, her son had never been in any trouble with the police.

The next day she began ringing police stations in Kyiv and couldn’t find any trace of him.  She finally learned that he was being held in a temporary holding unit, but by the time she got there with a parcel of food, etc for him, they said he wasn’t there.

She wasn’t even able to see him at the court hearing – she and the lawyer were given the wrong information and waited outside a different courtroom.

Fortunately Hromadskie.tv journalist Dmytro Hnap was in court that evening when Judge Olena Radchykova ordered that Prytulenko be detained in custody for two months.  He explains that the prosecutor claimed that Prytulenko had been caught with a firework device and that he had hit out at police officers when being detained.  Those allegations are based solely on testimony from police officers whose names were not given, and who were not present in court.

There is however video footage which shows the police kicking and beating around 10 people lying on the street, seemingly injured.