TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE

Section 6Stories on children — victims of ill-treatmentthe policemen thrown them, they were led out to the toilet under the convoywhen the police allowed; they drank only water from the tap in the toilet.Against all of them was chosen the preventive measure in the form of detentionin the Preliminary Detention Center (SIZO — ukr). Later the term of detentionwas continued for two and four months.Initially all juveniles were charged with premeditated murder in complicity,later in the course of pre-trial investigation that accusation was remainedonly against one of them, the most ignorant and immature physically, whileothers were charged as accomplices in hooliganism (allegedly took place beforethe murder), and in concealing the crime). This boy (“the murderer”) haslost his parents at the age of three years and all these years he didn’t’t haveproper care, nutrition and education. Other accused told at the trial that this“main accused” was in custody the victim of the sexual abuse and on thesereasons some of them treated him with obvious contempt.Initially the boys refused to give statements about applying to them theprohibited methods of inquiry because they were afraid of the repeating ofthe tortures. They have done this only on the questioning during the courthearing of the case.The gir S. at the trial gave the statements that she had been kept in thedistrict police department for three days. During this period of time she wasdeprived of food and normal conditions for sleep, the policemen threatenedto beat her if she would refuse to give testimonies against the boys. Finally shehad signed the documents in which she incriminated the boys in committingthe murder of the man.When at the trial all accused and two girls-witnesses gave the testimoniesthat they had been beaten and tortured in course of the inquiry the courtordered the prosecutor’s examination under these allegations. After the conductingof the check the Prosecution’s Office refused to initiate criminal proceedingon the ground of the lack of corpus delicti.The defense lawyer of one of the accused lodged to the court the complainton the matter of unlawful detention and keeping of the children fromfour to seven days in the district police department. The court retransmittedthe complaint to the same prosecutor’s office which refused to initiate thecriminal proceeding on the fact of the unlawful detention of the children, despitethe presence of numerous written evidences in the case file and in informationgiven to defense lawyer’s requests. The defense lawyer’s actions andcomplaints against this ruling didn’t give any results because the prosecutor’s175