Brenda J. Hollis, head of investigations into international crimes committed in Ukraine at the International Criminal Court (ICC), along with her team, inspected the torture chambers set up by Russian military personnel during the occupation of the Kharkiv region.
This was reported by the press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
During the visit, Spartak Borysenko, head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict at the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, informed that prosecutors, together with other law enforcement officers, discovered 25 torture chambers in the Kharkiv region. The collected evidence indicates that detainees were subjected to torture, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. They were barely fed and only given technical water to drink. Their teeth were removed, wrists were bound, and using a metal hook and crane, their bodies were lifted into the air. Nails were ripped out, electric shocks were administered through wires attached to various parts of their bodies, and they were beaten with rubber batons.
In turn, Yuri Byelousov, head of the so-called Department of War, stated that as part of a broader investigation into criminal actions committed in Ukraine, ICC prosecutors are collecting and analyzing evidence of the torture of civilians in the Kharkiv region.
'Our fruitful cooperation with the ICC continues. The focus should be on criminals at all levels for whom there is sufficient evidence to bring them to criminal responsibility, regardless of rank or position. We are doing everything possible to ensure that criminals are held accountable under the law. All of them. And it will definitely happen. It is only a matter of time,' Byelousov was quoted as saying by the press service.
In June of this year, Brenda Hollis mentioned during a workshop for journalists that ICC representatives are identifying locations where Russian Federation representatives subjected Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians to brutal torture.
In September 2023, the ICC opened its field office in Kyiv.
Since March 2022, the ICC has been conducting its independent investigation into Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
