The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has expressed concern over the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by the police in Ukraine

It is excellent that Yakiv Strogan has finally been released from custody, albeit on a signed undertaking not to leave, and can now be with his family. It remains as deeply disturbing as ever that the law enforcement bodies and court persist in refusing to investigate serious allegations of torture against police officers

The Commission on the Strengthening of Democracy and Affirmation of the Rule of Law believes that the draft Criminal Procedure Code, passed at its first reading in the Verkhovna Rada on 9 February, needs significant reworking

Amnesty International welcomes the progress that has been made in Ukraine towards the adoption of a new Criminal Procedural Code, but calls on parliament to ensure that the new draft code includes stronger safeguards against torture and other ill-treatment

Former Chornobyl clean-up workers assert that not only is the prosecutor failing to defend their rights and not ensuring that court rulings are enforced, but is also allowing the police to trump up criminal investigations against members of their movement

A monitoring study carried out by the Odessa Veritas Human Rights Group with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation has found widespread and systematic breaches of people’s property rights

“Systemic deficiencies in the functioning of the Ukrainian judicial system seriously hinder the enjoyment of human rights. The authorities should take resolute steps to better address these problems”

A court in Kyiv on Tuesday has allowed an application to temporarily stop providing hosting for the website Dorozhny Kontrol - roadcontrol.org.ua - until a final ruling is issued.

"Investigators try to obtain confessions from suspects even where they have irrefutable evidence of the crime, proving guilt…. It’s the Soviet school. Only after getting a confession do they send the case to the court"

Inna Sukhorukova recounts another story of police impunity, involving a young man not only accused of a crime he didn’t commit, serious procedural irregularities and a court trial despite the defendant being recognized as mentally unfit to stand trial.

On 8 February in the Budyonovsk District Police Station in Donetsk a young man died after being “invited to the station” to give testimony in a criminal investigation regarding a robbery.

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

Denis Kobzin and Andriy Chernousov from the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research write that the courts are not preventing the use of confessions obtained by unlawful methods. While there are many reasons, they say that the main cause is the degree of dependence of judges.

On 3 February 2012 the Kyivsky District Court in Kharkiv overturned the decision to initiate a criminal investigation over alleged forging of documents confirming the status of former Chornobyl clean-up workers

Oleksy Svyetikov from the Luhansk Regional Branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine reports a worrying increase in interference as well as downright unlawful behaviour by Luhansk police officers with respect to civic activists

41% of the foreign nationals living in Kharkiv experienced some harassment on religious or racial / ethnic grounds in 2010/2011

The alarming trend towards an increase in deaths in police custody or penal institutions seen over the last two years is not letting up, with two young men dying in unclear circumstances just in the last week.

Overt pressure on the enforcement bodies and increasing encroachments on the independence of the judiciary are a danger to everybody. Journalists would be well-advised to think hard about who they are serving through uncritical reporting such as that seen over the PrivatBank killings

Following a report on his Facebook page by TVi journalist Konstyantin Usov, the State Penitentiary Service has issued a statement on its website regarding the death of a young man last night, 24 January. As can be seen below this diverges considerably from the journalist’s report

The Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement has compiled a harrowing report on death in police custody during 2011. Of the 35 deaths, 7 people hanged themselves, and 5 jumped from windows