Police detain member of the Independent Media Trade Union from Donetsk

In Kyiv this morning at the metro station “Voksalna” police detained Maxim Abramovsky, member of the Independent Media Trade Union from Donetsk. The information was confirmed by a colleague, Tymofiy Zlatkin, who was with Mr Abramovsky at the time and says that the police were waiting for them. “We asked them what the grounds were for detaining him and they say that they are carrying out an “Anti-terror” operation. They provide no identification when asked”.  He also said that his colleague had managed to phone him and say that he was being beaten, but since then there has been no more communication.

The Head of the Kyiv MIA [Ministry of Internal Affairs] Centre for Public Relations in Kyiv, Volodymyr Polishchuk, informed Telekritika that the grounds for his detention had been his gas pistol. “He is presently being questioned in a police interrogation room. I have already had calls from journalists talking about him being tortured. I refute this information. A gas pistol was found on him and they are now ascertaining whether he had the relevant permit. There is a suspicion that the pistol was reworked from a gas to a shock pistol. They will find out and release him”. 

A specialist from the same department, Oleksandr Radkevych said that the gas pistol for which he had a permit had been reworked by him or for him. He said that they would release Mr Abramovsky pending the results of the expert assessment. He claimed that the police constantly carry out such raids, and that at 10.50 when Abramovsky entered the metro, a police officer had gone up and shown identification, and that they had gone into the interrogation room with two witnesses. He denied that any special devices had been used against him.

Telekritika reported a year and a half ago that Maxim Abramovsky had been beaten by the Donetsk police.