A/HRC/43/CRP.5 international humanitarian law,35 and where there are substantial grounds for believing that torture may occur, it may amount to a violation of the obligation of non-refoulement. 52. For example, on 17 December 2018, a man was detained by the ‘ministry of state security’ of ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ at the ‘Uspenka’ border crossing point with the Russian Federation in territory controlled by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’. He was detained incommunicado under the 30-day ‘administrative arrest’ procedure, which was prolonged for another 30 days. During his detention, he was tortured, including with electricity, until he confessed to having cooperated with the SBU. On 18 February 2019, ‘ministry of state security’ agents took the man to the border crossing point, where he was forced to cross and was immediately apprehended by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. He was driven to Krasnodar in the Russian Federation and charged with administrative offences.36 After he had served the detention period under the administrative procedure, the court ordered him deported.37 However, on 30 April 2019, he was charged with arms smuggling and remains detained in Krasnodar.38 53. On 26 August 2016, a man was detained near the town of Rovenky in territory controlled by ‘Luhansk’s people’s republic’, by two armed men in military uniform. They brought him to the facilities of a mine, where he was detained overnight, sleeping in an old wooden chair, guarded by an armed man. He was not provided water or food, and was not allowed to use the restroom. A few days later, he was taken to the ‘ministry of state security’ building in Luhansk, where he was detained for several weeks alone in a cell with the lights on all day and night. He was pushed down the stairs, thrown against a wall, and forced to wear a plastic bag over his head whenever he was moved from his cell. Members of the ‘ministry of state security’ threatened further violence to him and to his family if he did not confess to preparing a terrorist attack. During his interrogations, the men slapped and kicked him, and knocked a chair from under him, throwing him to the floor. On 22 September 2016, ‘ministry of state security’ personnel put a plastic bag over his head and took him across the border into the Russian Federation, where they handed him over to the FSB. Between 23 and 27 September, he was interrogated in Morozovsk by FSB officers who tortured and ill-treated him with beatings and electroshocks, causing him to lose consciousness several times. On 27 September, he agreed to confess to preparing a terrorist attack, after which he was held in SIZOs in Rostov-on-Don and in Samara. In November 2017, he was convicted of preparing a terrorist attack and illegally crossing the border and transferred to a penal colony in Irkutsk to serve his sentence, until his release to Ukraine on 7 September 2019.39 D. Situation of pre-conflict prisoners 54. OHCHR welcomes the transfer of 54 pre-conflict male prisoners on 12 September 2019 from penal colonies in territory controlled by ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ to Government-controlled territory. OHCHR calls for the continuation of such transfers from penal colonies in territory controlled both by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ and ‘Luhansk people’s republic’, as OHCHR is aware of additional prisoners who want to be transferred, inter alia, to maintain contact with their relatives living in Government-controlled territory. 35 36 37 38 39 Article 17 (1) Additional Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Article 18.10 (unlawful exercise by a foreign citizen or stateless person of labour activities in the Russian Federation) and Article 19.3 (failure to follow the lawful order of a police officer, a member of the military, an officer of the bodies for control over the traffic of narcotics and psychotropic substances, of an official of the bodies of the Federal Security Service, an officer of the personnel of State Guard Bodies, of an officer of the bodies authorised to exercise the functions of control and supervision in the field of migration or an officer of the body or institution of the criminal punishment system) of Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. Article 18.8 (violation by an alien or a stateless person of the rules for entry into the Russian Federation or of the regime for staying (living) in the Russian Federation) of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. OHCHR interview, 9 October 2019. OHCHR interview, 12 September 2019. 17