UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Aug 26 — Employees of Oleksiivka penal colony #25 were detained and charged with coercing prisoners into forced labour through torture, reports State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. 

“Prosecution uncovered that employees of one of the correctional facilities in Kharkiv coerced the inmates into forced labor through torture, psychological abuse, intimidation, and humiliation of human dignity,” Kravchenko said. 

Law enforcement conducted three urgent searches in the colony itself and another 13 in the homes of the employees who were charged. 

SBI detained and issued a notice of suspicion to five correctional facility employees, including its head. 

If found guilty by the court, they face up to 12 years in prison for torture. 

This spring, SBI reported about the detention of two employees of Poltava pre-trial detention center, who were also accused of abusing and torturing prisoners. 

In the special 2024 report on torture prevention in prisoners and other detention facilities, Ukraine’s Ombudsman recommended that the Justice Ministry to analyze why recommendations of the European Committee for torture and ill-treatment prevention are not implemented. 

Ombudsman’s office recorded 843 cases of imprisoned people being injured in prisons and pre-trial detention centers, and 271 cases of deaths, in particular suicides, in 2024. 

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