Serhiy Kostakov, who spent seven and a half months in custody from December 2010 charged with blocking the road and damaging a car during the mass peaceful protest against the new Tax Code in November 2010, is presently in a European country where he has asked for asylum

Yakiv Strogan has now been held in custody for almost 14 months in a case creating a number of highly dangerous precedents, and with clear signs of being aimed at warning people against speaking out against police torture

The court awarded 50 thousand UAH in compensation for unlawful detention; the use of handcuffs; failure to inform relatives of the detention; unlawful investigative operations and delay in bringing the claimant to court

There is no justification for the unlawful existence of this SIZO which, according to commitments made to the Council of Europe before Ukraine joined, was de jure closed in 2003

There were protests on Sunday outside the Kyiv police temporary holding unit where Vitaly Gruzynov has been held for four days without a court order. He is one of 7 activists accused of damaging the granite stone on Kyiv’s Independence Square during the peaceful protest by small business owners against the new Tax Code

January 2011 saw a wave of detentions, searches, interrogations of members of the organizations VO Svoboda [the Freedom Party], V.O. Tryzub and other similar organizations

Vasyl Klimentyev’s colleagues believe it possible that he was abducted due to critical articles in the newspaper, which specializes in journalist investigations. Most worrying is that the police have already initiated a homicide investigation

This is only one of many cases where people have been held in detention, sometimes for much longer periods, because of faults in Ukrainian procedure and legislation on extradition

The Instructions on carrying out internal investigations state that if a law enforcement officer involved in the case does not wish to testify, he doesn’t have to which is the point at which all internal investigations end

Donetsk Memorial has circulated an open letter to the Prosecutor General, copied to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. It concerns the actions of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor in not complying with a court ruling finding the detention of Mr O. unlawful

One of the members of the “Tabachnyk – Stop!” campaign who was handing out leaflets in front of the Taras Shevchenko National University where a meeting is taking place between Dmytro Tabachnyk, Minister of Education and the University’s Deans, has been detained by police

A Kyiv court has found that in the case of Vadim Hladchuk, all were at fault – police, the court and the Prosecutor’s office. It awarded damages of 125 thousand UAH, which neither Mr Hladchuk, nor his lawyer consider sufficient since the case involved real criminal prosecution

If a new draft law just submitted to the Verkhovna Rada is passed, permits to own traumatic pistols will be available to anyone over 21 who has received a medical OK to obtain, hold and use such weapons

The Odessa Regional Prosecutor has initiated a criminal investigation over bodily injuries suffered by a person under investigation in one of the Odessa police stations

While welcoming positive measures, the Working Group still expressed concern over access to justice by detainees; repeated reports of abuse and torture in particular at the crucial stage of initial arrest and detention, and others

The dismissal of Mykola Sych follows the initiation of a criminal investigation into the death in Prytuky of Serhiy Kuntsevsky while in police custody

or what has been done to implement the Optional Protocol against Torture. Two years on, very little, unfortunately, although the mobile groups visiting police places of detention have proved their value

The Chernihiv Regional Prosecutor has reported that a criminal investigation has been initiated against three officers and a lower-ranking employee of the Chernihiv Regional Department for Fighting Organized Crime in Prytuky

A criminal investigation has been launched after a 39-year-old died after being detained by police officers in Prytyky.

130 people were released on bail last year, with a record 4 million UAH being paid