Concentration camp of Bakhmut detention center and hell of Sinelnykove ZONE

05.06.2022

Sewn heads, swollen backs, all bodies bruised. This is the everyday reality of the Bakhmut Penitentiary № 6 in Donetsk Region. Here, workers organize drug trafficking, seize transfers, demand money, and torture prisoners. And all those happen in the 21st century - with the connivance of senior management and prosecutors. Prisoners are disenfranchised, human rights defenders are powerless, and relatives give the last thing they have to pay bribes to the Detention center (SIZO) leadership.

Twenty-one prisoners wrote me letters. Therefore, according to them, I can recreate the chronology of events.

Torture began in cell № 29. Masked workers began torturing 25-year-old Dmytro Vasylevsky, as well as Rustam Mikhteev and Ivan Sysoyev.

But it seems that beating prisoners in the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center is not enough. Also need to break their will and humiliate them.

Workers forced Andriy Rudyak and Yevhen Tarusyn to kneel before them.

After that, Vasilevsky was handcuffed, taken out of the cell and thrown into the corridor on the floor. Inspector of the regime and security department Dmytro Lunyakin started kicking him in the head.

Six days later, the same cell was searched again. Now Vasilevsky was beaten with rubber truncheons by two workers. One of them - Mykola - is a corps woker.

After being tortured, the prisoner was thrown into a disciplinary cell.

Such beatings are not isolated exceptions. SIZO staff apply special means to prisoners. After all, they are beating fast and systematically.

The real torture chamber was arranged on January 27. The workers mocked the prisoners in the three cells.

And again - under the pretext of searches.

Men in balaclavas ran into cell № 63 and started beating everyone in a row.

Alexander Butyrin, Gennady Artemenko, prisoners Trotsky and Chebotar were especially beated.

Among the executioners, the victims recognized a regime worker, Dmytro Hryshko.

The beaten, half-naked were thrown into Disciplinary isolator of a correctional colony (dungeon).

But that was not enough - the executioners wanted blood. Next was the №178 camera. They came in without explanation - and for no reason began to beat people with their hands, feet and sticks.

Oleg Kuzmenko's head was smashed (later doctors applied stitches). After the beatings, his back swelled, and doubled in size - as if a hump had grown.

Viktor Ptashnikov was also brutally beaten.

And they decided to finish in cell № 75 - where the hospital is located. Surkov and Volodko were beaten.

Although the executioners were in balaclavas, when they went out into the corridors, the convicts from other cells saw among them the already mentioned Dmytro Lunyakin and the chief of the operative unit Maksym Metsenko.

Prisoners do not have many ways to protect themselves from illegal actions by the administration. So, in order to stop the wave of torture, the detainees of the pre-trial detention center resorted to almost the only ones. Anatoliy Heichenko and Oleksandr Oliynyk cut their veins. These prisoners have some stories. They concern detention in solitary confinement. Yes, at the time of the events, Oliynyk was being held alone for five years!

The second mechanism used by the prisoners was a hunger strike. I was sent 20 statements - about refusing to eat - because of mass beatings. The prisoners also demanded a meeting with the prosecutor.

(other request can be found at this link)

After receiving copies of statements from prisoners, photos and videos, I wrote more than 50 appeals. To the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office, the DBR, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments, and human rights defenders.

After that, the prisoners began to be pressured. Anatoliy Heichenko, who cut his veins in protest, said the beaten prisoners had been threatened. Administration officials forced them to withdraw their request and complaints.

According to the reply sent to me by the head of the Bakhmut Penitentiary № 6 - the head of the detention center, Colonel Yevhen Dynnyk - the SIZO management received only one request against the refusal to eat!

These are the stories - our editorial office has 20 requsts. And in the pre-trial detention center - only one was registered.

However, according to the current regulations, the management of the institution is obliged to register each such written requst. Also - in each case - to send special messages to the Prosecutor of the Donetsk region P. Ugrovetsky and to the South-Eastern Interregional Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

The pressure on Anatoliy Heichenko also started:

- Greetings from the boss, you did not understand anything, you will go to the 45th camp or Kharkiv region, there you will be "obsosted" and forgotten about you, from there you will not return ... You will have tuberculosis and HIV, think about this, ”one of the pre-trial detention center employees told to Geichenko from outside the cell door.

(Eugene Zakharov, human rights activist)

Yevhen Dynnyk, head of the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center, also denies the beating of prisoners. According to him, the actions of the employees of the institution were legal. And were committed in accordance with Art. 18 of the Law of Ukraine "On Pre-trial Detention".

The head of the pre-trial detention center insists that only handcuffs and bending his arms behind his back were applied to the prisoners. Each such fact was reported to the Prosecutor of the Donetsk Region P. Uhrovetsky and to the South-Eastern Interregional Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Also, according to E. Dynnyk, after each episode of special measures, medical examinations were conducted, and no injuries were found.

(Eugene Dynnyk (in uniform)

And we could agree with that. If the prisoners failed to take a photo and pass it on to our editorial office. Numerous bruises on the hands, face, torso. Swollen back. Sewn heads.

Along with the requests, I sent a photos to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.

On February 9, a representative of the Commissioner for Respect for the Rights of Residents in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, Konstantin Chernikov, and employees of the Office, Oleksandr Dvornik, Oleksandr Dubina, and Anton Petrov, paid an unscheduled monitoring visit to verify these facts. During the visit, the Secretariat conducted a confidential conversation with 26 prisoners, during which it was established that on January 27, 2022, the administration of the institution applied physical measures against some prisoners.

At the same time, it should be noted that I sent 25 appeals to the People's Deputies of Ukraine - members of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement.

Of these, only the People's Deputy of Ukraine Yulia Jacyk responded - she sent parliamentary appeals to a number of instances.

Immediately, a few days later, a response was received from the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office. In particular, I was informed that since January 31, investigators of the first investigative department of the territorial administration of the DBR, located in Kramatorsk, are conducting a pre-trial investigation on the grounds of a criminal offense under Part 2 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code - abuse of power or law enforcement officer.

By the way, I was able to establish that the harassment and torture that took place in January in the Bakhmut Penitentiary № 6 is not an isolated phenomenon.

Thus, under the procedural guidance of the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office, a pre-trial investigation is underway into the fact that one of the prisoners committed suicide attempts.

The pre-trial investigation established that in November 2019 - January 2020, the administration of the institution systematically abused the prisoner and violated his rights. Because of this attitude, the man, while in solitary confinement, tried to commit suicide three times.

In addition, the management of the institution did not enter information about suicide attempts in the book of statements and reports of criminal offenses and other events.

As in the case of allegations of beatings and hunger strikes in January this year.

Why torture is used.

I managed to get two video appeals from the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center. They shed light on one of the possible reasons for the use of torture in this institution.

And in this video - Eugene Aransky. He was released from the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center a few days ago. And confirms the facts of extortion:

Anatoliy Heichenko, who is being held in solitary confinement, also confirms extortion:

- From one cell - from about 1 to 3 thousand hryvnias a month, for the fact that there was a mobile phone, normal utensils and did not conduct searches. –

SIZO is like a profitable business.

There may be a number of types of earnings for employees on the territory of the Bakhmut Penitentiary. For example, according to the prisoners themselves, cigarettes are smuggled into the pre-trial detention center. Cigarettes from prisoners and convicts are demanded and confiscated by the staff of the institution - upon receipt of parcels and transfers.

According to one of the prisoners, Serhiy Baryska sells cigarettes (he works as a receiver parcels). Then cigarettes are distributed through convicts (administrative assistants). There are two phone numbers that are provided for the purchase of cigarettes. You call one number and order cigarettes.

And you dump money on another.

It is known that two other lucrative illegal "businesses" thriv in Ukrainian penitentiaries. This is when prisoners engage in telephone fraud. And drug trafficking.

Is there such a thing in the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center? Eugene Aransky, told the camera clearly: the administration of the institution offered him to engage in telephone fraud or drug trafficking.

Anatoliy Heichenko also insists that drug trafficking takes place in the institution. According to him, drugs (herbs, methadone, gabana tablets and lyrics) sell for a long time. The prisoner believes that the distribution of drugs can be controlled by Chief Yevhen Dynnyk.

He is allegedly assisted by Maksym Metsenko, chief of the operational unit and senior operative officer of the operational unit, Serhiy Golovanyov.

After the drugs are allegedly placed in the pre-trial detention center, they are brought to certain cells - for storage and then the staff (corps and duty officers) distribute them in the institution.

I provided this information to both the DBR and the Prosecutor General's Office. The Prosecutor's Office of Donetsk region wrote that this information will be carefully verified during the pre-trial investigation.

Of course, the editorial board cannot accuse either Dynnyk, Metsenko or Golovanev of organizing drug trafficking in the institution. However, the fact that SIZO employees are involved in drug trafficking is a fait accompli.

Here are just a few episodes:

1. October 2021 - a criminal group that has been operating for at least a year was exposed. An employee of the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center was a member. Two prisoners took orders from other convicts, such as methadone, cannabis, and opium. And the worker carried drugs to institution.

2. August 2020 - an indictment was filed to the inspector of the regime and security department.

His powers included inspecting the cells and persons held in the institution to prevent them from storing items prohibited by law. Instead, he carried packaged drugs and sold them in jail.

3. July 2018 - an employee who carried opium and amphetamine to the pre-trial detention center was detained.

4. February 2017 - another employee of the pre-trial detention center was detained. The supply scheme was organized by one of the prisoners. He involved his free comrades in drug trafficking. His responsibilities as an employee of the SIZO included the delivery of "orders" to customers.

But there is a logical opinion - not all employees of the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center - non-humans. Should there be those who should be concerned about the law? It's hard to say - they work here, mostly whole family clans.

Dmytro Lunyakin, who prisoners say is involved in torture, is an inspector of the regime and security department. His wife, Khrystyna Lunyakina, is a senior inspector in the SIZO's human resources department.

The institution also employs Victoria Lunyakina (Buryakova), a junior inspector of the regime and security department. And her husband Dmytro Buryakov is the head of the department of engineering and technical means of protection, informatization and communication.

Maksym Tymoshenko is the Deputy Assistant to the Chief of the SIZO. Which, according to prisoner Aransky, brought him a bank card number to deposit money.

Oksana Tymoshenko - ex-wife. In the past she worked as a junior inspector in the Bakhmut pre-trial detention center.

Sergey Golovanev - the operative. According to prisoner Anatoliy Heichenko, Serhiy Golovanyov is involved in drug trafficking. Wife - Golovaneva Julia Leonidovna - Junior Inspector of the Department of Regime and Security.

And such connections can be traced.

According to official figures from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Ukraine ranks second in Europe in the number of cases of torture, torture, beatings, rape, extortion, mutilation and murder in prisons.

Numerous facts are known about the abuse of prisoners, mass beatings and injuries in the most terrible European prisons in Ukraine - Oleksiyivska VK №25 (Kharkiv), Romenska VK № 56 (Sumy region), Pivdenna VK № 51 (Odesa), murders in Khmelnytsky SIZO, Northern Correctional Colony №90 (Kherson), Temnivska VK №100 (Kharkiv Region), systematic rapes in Berdyansk VK №77 (Zaporizhzhya Region); Zhovtovodskaya VK №26 (Dnipropetrovsk region), Kropyvnytskyi pre-trial detention center, Horodyshchenska VK-96 (Rivne), murders in Vilnyanska VK-11 (Zaporizhzhya region), Zamkova VK-58 (Khmelnytsky region), Odesa SIZO.

There are horrific cases when the operative units and the management of correctional colonies and pre-trial detention centers involve other prisoners in their criminal activities. Penitentiary authorities use other prisoners (so-called activists) to beat, torture, rape and abuse other prisoners, in order to systematically and periodically demand large sums of money and property from relatives of prisoners.

So, recently, journalists of the project "Svoi" from Kryvyi Rih, published shocking video evidence of abuse of activists ("goats") on convicts in Sofia Correctional Facility G45 in Dnipropetrovsk region. Several servants of the administration "urinate" on the newly arrived convicts. And all this takes place in administrative buildings, and accordingly the entrance there is possible only with the permission of the administration of the colony.

But one should not think that the Bakhmut Penitentiary № 6 is an exception. On the contrary, there is a clear pattern of everyday reality of the existence of correctional colonies and pre-trial detention centers.

According to Serhiy Kostin, Deputy Head of the Pre-Trial Investigations Department of the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigation, in the Right to Law program of the state TV channel DIM, in 2019-2020 alone the DBR investigated more than 70 criminal proceedings on smuggling and drug trafficking by the employees of penitentiary institutions.

By the way, last month DBR officers reported the suspicion to the inspector of the supervision and security department of the Sinelnykove correctional colony.

According to operative information, the 29-year-old sergeant of the internal service bought a considerable consignment of drugs through his own channels.

During a personal search, more than 30 packages of cannabis, methadone, methamphetamine and diphenhydramine were found and confiscated from him.

Sinelnykove hell

Men who have already served their sentences are being held in Sinelnykove Correctional Colony № 94. The colony is one of the most significant in Ukraine. The management of the institution keeps the convicts in "hedgehog gloves".

According to human rights activists, there is no ceremony with prisoners here.

Actively use Art. 391 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - “Malicious disobedience to the requirements of the administration of the penitentiary institution”, in Synelnykivska Corrective colony № 94.

Thus, in 2010-2019, the courts passed 36 sentences on the convicts held in this colony. This is the second penitentiary institution in terms of the number of such cases in Ukraine.

And according to the convicts, in this colony - everything is like in Bakhmut. Extortion of money by the administration, telephone scams, drug trafficking.

(Corrective colony № 94, photo by Kharkiv Human Rights Group)

Convicted Oleksandr Dyachenko addressed me. Tablets were taken from him and his colleagues. The tablets did not have SIM cards and Internet access, and therefore such devices are allowed. Dyachenko said workers demanded money and threatened to beat him.

Out of desperation - Dyachenko swallowed the handle of the spoon. Later, when one of his acquaintances said that there was an instruction from the administration to beat him, Dyachenko also swallowed a hook.

The persecution of the convict stopped only after, at my request, representatives of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights arrived in the colony. Which also wrote an appeal to the prosecutor's office.

Dyachenko writes that in the past, on the instructions of the administration, he was beaten by other convicts (activists).

And when the prosecutor from the Sinelnykove prosecutor's office came with an inspection, Dyachenko was threatened by the head of the operative unit, Fedik, so that the convict would deny any pressure.

Dyachenko was repeatedly threatened by the deputy head of the colony Komlyk.

According to Dyachenko, drugs are sold in Corrective colony 94. This involves other prisoners who work with the administration.

The administration controlls drug trafficking. Fedik often allegedly brings drugs to the colony.

For reporting - convicts are forced to confess to crimes - they allegedly find drugs in them that employees of the administration bring and give themselves.

Drugs: methadone and malachite.

* According to one of the convicts

Prices in Sinelnykove Corrective colony № 94:

Illegal visit - UAH 1,000;

To receive the parcel with drugs or phone - 1000;

Return the removed phone - UAH 500.

Payment - through convicts who work with the administration. The money is thrown into the phone number and then withdrawn.

Business scams in the colonies:

"Sale" of household appliances, food processors, "provision" of freight services. In fact, they breed people for money.

In OLX - spread the message - about the sale on prepayment. Or delivery of goods, but you need to pay for delivery.

And finally. Not just ordinary workers.

Thus, in 2017, the Deputy Chief of Social, Educational and Psychological Work, Colonel of Sinelnykove Corrective colony №94 was detained. For the money, he "decided" the issue of parole.

This investigation was conducted within the framework of the project "Incentive for Independent Journalism in the Regions of Ukraine", implemented by the Lithuanian Union of Journalists, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and in partnership with the Center for Eastern European Studies.

The Center for Eastern European Studies, the Lithuanian Union of Journalists and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine may disagree with the author and are not responsible for the facts presented.