On 3 September, Truth Hounds and Project Expedite Justice (PEJ) presented the findings of their joint report, Organised Cruelty: Russia’s Network of Unlawful Detention and Torture in Kharkiv Region. The report documents repeated instances of torture and ill-treatment in a network of places where civilians were unlawfully detained.
Based on 114 testimonies from survivors and witnesses, documentary evidence, and open-source investigations, the report analyses the establishment and functioning of this system of detention and torture. The evidence reveals recurring patterns across 29 identified places of torture, including common structural and organisational features, staff selection and organisational practices, interrogation methods, and techniques of torture.
The event was moderated by Maryna Slobodianiuk, Training and Strategic Projects Coordinator at Truth Hounds. In her opening remarks, Maryna spoke about the background to the report.
“On 20 September 2022, a team of Truth Hounds documenters went on their first mission to the recently liberated areas of Kharkiv region. We documented the traces of the occupation – killings, shelling, the shooting of cars, looting and attacks on cultural heritage. During the five-day mission, we found information about 80 people who had been subjected to enforced disappearance and torture. There were then around 10 more documentation missions to the region. Based on these missions, the number of people who had been held in places of unlawful detention was estimated at around 800. We worked with this body of information in the case of Volodymyr Vakulenko, while preparing a submission to the German prosecutor’s office, and in cooperation with the official investigation. But we realised that this was only part of the information and that it required a different approach.” – Maryna Slobodianiuk, Training and Strategic Projects Coordinator, Truth Hounds
Photo: © Anton Fedorov, via Truth Hounds
