TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN UKRAINE

Torture and ill-treatment of children in Ukraine1826.6. 10-years-old criminalsIn February 2013 three 10-year olds, two boys and one girl were walking inone of the neighborhoods Frunze district of Kharkiv. At this time the 13-yearoldboy pulled the key of a flat from a pocket of the tipsy owner of the flat,lived in the nearby house, and entered to the flat. 10-year-olds had no relationto the actions of 13-year-old boy, but they knew him.After some time, the elder’s boy mother started to seek him, and theyounger boys began to call him to his home. The elder boy invited them tocome to the flat, and after that he pulled the girl that stayed next to the boysinto the flat. At this time, the apartment owner, which was getting sober, cometo the apartment, saw children and called the police.Search police officers came into the flat took all four kids to the districtpolice station. Only two hours later, parents reported that the children are inthe police station. But after the arrival of the parents to the station parentswere not given the opportunity to see his children. Around 22-30, i. e., almost6 hours after the factual detention of the children, and due to active actions ofthe lawyer invited by the children’s parents, the children were released frompolice. So this time they were kept in the police despite the fact that policeknew immediately that 10-year-olds had not committed any criminal acts.It was later revealed that the detention of children has not been registeredand therefore was unlawful. The lawyer had filed a criminal complaint for theactions of the police officers to the District Prosecutor’s Office, which gave theanswer that there wer no violations by the. Then the complaint had lodgedto the prosecutor’s office of Kharkiv city was returned again to the DistrictProsecutor’s Office, and then — to the district police station, whose officershad detained children.The father of one of the 10-year-old boy, who had invited counsel to defendthe children from the police, was brought to administrative responsibilityfor dereliction of duty in relation to parenting. Fortunatelyt the appellatecourt reversed a decision of the trial court and closed the case.The police came to the school where children studied, and told that childrenhad committed theft, and therefore brought to the police. The most interestingthing in this case that the authorities have examined the complaintsof illegal detention of children till now are not able to identify the police officerswho carried out the detention of the children.