A/HRC/45/CRP.8A/HRC/45/CRP.8 B. Arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence By the Government of Ukraine 55. Torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials remains systemic in Ukraine. During the reporting period, it was exemplified by a highly publicised case in Kaharlyk police department (Kyiv region). In the evening of 23 May, a woman was summoned to the police department as a witness to testify about a theft. She was held there until 4.00 a.m. the next day. One police officer suffocated her with a gas mask, beat her on the head and body, shot a gun over her head, and threatened her with a stun gun. Another officer raped the woman several times. The same officers beat the man suspected of the theft on the head with truncheons, suffocated him with a gas mask, fired a gun over his head and threatened him with rape. Following the incident, ten officers of the department were suspended, and the two alleged perpetrators were detained and charged under articles 127 (torture) and 152 (rape) of the Criminal Code. During the investigation, two other officers of the same department were notified of suspicion of torture of other detainees. Following this, a coordination meeting of heads of law enforcement agencies was organized on 4 June by the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine. The participants declared zero tolerance to torture and illtreatment by law enforcement officials and agreed on a number of specific measures. 56. According to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), from 1 January to 31 August 2020, pre-trial investigations were launched into 1,066 allegations of torture and illtreatment by law enforcements officers, including 22 under article 127 (torture) of the Criminal Code. In total, by the end of August 2020, the SBI had opened 1,948 pre-trial investigations related to the use of torture and ill-treatment, including 71 under article 127 of the Criminal Code. Since the end of 2018, 75 cases have been sent to court against 155 people, including seven cases against 19 people under article 127 of the Criminal Code. 27 OHCHR is concerned that the majority of investigations into acts of torture or ill-treatment are carried out under article 365 (excess of authority or official powers) of the Criminal Code. OHCHR hopes that the long-standing UN recommendation to bring article 127 of the Criminal Code fully in line with the UN Convention against Torture will be implemented. 57. OHCHR did not document cases of conflict-related torture or ill-treatment by Government actors that occurred during the reporting period. OHCHR continued, however, to document and follow cases that occurred before 16 February 2020 for which there was still no accountability. For example, in December 2014, a man was apprehended by unknown men in balaclavas and taken with a bag on his head to a forest area near the Government-controlled city of Mariupol (Donetsk region). He was kicked all over his body and subjected to a mock execution: the perpetrators put him on his knees and shot over his head with a machine gun. He was then taken to the basement of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Mariupol, where he was beaten over the next few days until he agreed to sign a confession that he was a member of armed groups of ‘Donetsk people’s republic’. In March 2015, following a court ruling to release him on bail, he was brought to the Kharkiv SBU and held incommunicado until his release in 2016 as part of one of the simultaneous releases agreed under the Minsk agreements.28 By self-proclaimed ‘republics’ 58. During the reporting period, OHCHR continued to document cases of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, and torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, in territory controlled by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ and ‘Luhansk people’s republic’. 59. On 16 April, a simultaneous release of detainees under the Minsk agreements occurred. The Government released 17 individuals (all men), of whom ten were handed over to representatives of ‘Donetsk people’s republic’, and four to ‘Luhansk people’s republic’.29 The self-proclaimed ‘republics’ released 20 detainees: nine detainees (all men) from 27 28 29 The information provided above is based on statistics provided by the SBI to HRMMU on 2 September. It includes data updated to 31 August 2020. OHCHR interview, 13 April 2020. The remaining three, pardoned by the President, decided, at the last minute, not to travel to territory controlled by armed groups. 15