Corruption and sadism in the Chernihiv police and the inaction of the local prosecutor’s office
The campaign against corruption and offences by officials in the Chernihiv prosecutor’s office and police department looks rather strange. This is confirmed by the story of police lieutenant Taras Shved, who worked, till recently, as a district officer of the Ripki district department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
A reasonably high salary and numerous privileges did not satisfy lieutenant Shved. His district was lucrative – there were many persons, who produced homemade vodka (which is not encouraged by Ukrainian laws). So, he started to collect “contributions” from these distillers under the guise of administrative fines (50 UH, 100 UH and more). And now and then he appropriated the confiscated product rather than destroying it. However, as sometimes happens, he was taken in the act. On 6 December 2005 the Ripki district court imposed a fine on him: the dishonest officer had to pay 450 UH (although, I believe, he got much more money from his “clients”). Yet, the work “punishment” was “extremely severe”: he was transferred from the district centre to the regional centre to the post of a detective of the department of criminal police in charge of minors of the Desnianskiy district of Chernihiv.
After the fiasco in Ripki police lieutenant T. Shved demonstrated, in Chernihiv, another talent: he brutally beat up a young lad in the Desniansky district station. The lad’s only “crime” had been to try to buy a student concession ticket using a document which had expired. The youth was taken to the district station (by the way, for the first time in his life) by three workers of Chernihiv trolleybus department. There, in the presence of these workers, lieutenant Shved beat the boy on his head until the victim collapsed.
It should be noted that the department of internal security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs thoroughly investigated this incident, collected all proofs and passed the case to the regional prosecutor’s office for consideration. However, despite the presence of irrefutable proofs of the service crime committed by Taras Shved, the prosecutor’s office is dragging out consideration of the case for reasons that are unclear, and this lieutenant continues to “reform” minors at his post. One can only guess why the case is being considered for such a long time: most probably, it is done with assistance of “high connections” of his relatives – Shved’s father is a journalist and a former editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Chernihivski Vidomosti”, and his wife is also a well-known figure in journalists’ circles.
Meanwhile, I imagine, lieutenant Shved will try to intimidate witnesses and to sob over his own underage child, which he has already done both in the case with homemade vodka and in the recent case of beating up the youth.
Certainly, one can feel pity for the child of T. Shved, but who will pity our children who can become victims of such policeman with sadistic inclinations? Maybe the officials of the Chernihiv regional police department and regional prosecutor’s office are waiting until this “Makarenko” beats up some child to death?
We urge the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General prosecutor to please turn their attention to the situation in the Chernihiv police and the Chernihiv prosecutor’s office.
16 January 2006
Printed from Maidan