SBU serves in absentia suspicion notice to former head of occupation prison in Luhansk region who tortured Ukrainian POWs

The Security Service of Ukraine has gathered evidence and served a suspicion notice on the former head of an occupation prison in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region, who tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In a Monday Telegram post, SBU identifies the suspect as an employee of "correctional colony No. 4 of the ‘LNR’."

According to the Ukrainian security service, from October 2022 to January 2024 the perpetrator headed this occupation facility.

"During the aforementioned period, while holding a leadership ‘position,’ the collaborator not only ordered subordinates to torture captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also personally tortured the victims," the agency stressed.

According to case materials, he regularly beat prisoners with his hands, feet, a PR-73 rubber baton, and a carpenter’s hammer.

In addition, the SBU notes that during torture sessions the perpetrator sometimes used a stun gun.

The Ukrainian security service recalled that such actions grossly violate the requirements of Articles 4, 13, 14, 15, and 130 of the Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of August 12, 1949.

On the basis of the evidence gathered, Security Service investigators served the perpetrator with an in absentia suspicion notice under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (war crimes).

Comprehensive measures are ongoing to hold him accountable for the torture of captured Ukrainian soldiers.

The investigation was conducted jointly with SBU officers in Donetsk and Luhansk regions under the procedural supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.