Absurd accusations, savage tortures, and cruel murders of the inmates. The communication with criminals and separatists. The death penalty and the miraculous release… All of this had to go through the usual Luhansk inhabitant, who got into the dungeons of the insurgents of “Luhansk People’s Republic”.
Informator.lg.ua begins with this material the series of publications, dedicated to the problem of illegal imprisonment in “LPR” and “DPR”.
Aleksei Sergeevich, the intelligent sad man of age 50 told about his experiences in details and thoroughly. Such manner is more close for writing of the book of in time of filling out a police report. It’s seen that he afraids to lose any of trifle. It seems that everything told by him will stop to come into his memories. Periodically he stops and deeply breathes on the most hard moments.
Part 1. The capturing
When Luhansk Euromaidan began I didn’t have any doubts to go on it. It was normal and natural to go there. When separatist appearances began I started to visit pro-Ukrainian actions. I shot the video and made a lot of photos. I took part in producing and spreading of flyers. I was glad to meet on such events a lot of my friends and acquaintances. I met with one of them at considerably less happy circumstances — in the basement.
Before I was arrested I was going to go to sanatorium to have some cure. The week or a week with the half remained to the vacations. My relatives called to me and urged me to go out from the city, I answered that I was to going to have some cure and then I will go out completely. I was needed to took some personalia from my job. Except this we had a big aquarium with fishes and because no one from the employees appeared in our office during a week I was afraid that fishes would die and decided to feed them.
There were a lot of trails of shellings in the city and I, being a human with civil mind, took the photo camera with me to shot all of this. I took a service certificate just in case. There was my photo, stamp, post, I thought that it would be enough. The front door and windows on my work were shelled, I shot it and decided to go out. The man with machine gun went out from the opposite house. He asked me in a rude manner what I was doing there. “I come to my work” — I said — “What a job? Why are you lying to me? There is the shellings everywhere, nobody works! Documents!”
I showed my certificate.
“What are you poking me? Where is your passport?” — “Why do you need passport, if it has my photo, name, here is the stamp?” — “Stick your stamp into… What do you pinned here?” — “I come to pick up my money and to feed the fishes”. — “What fishes?! What are you saying?! You came to put the beacons on us!”
One more fighter came to me. The same question, the same reaction. Why I don’t have a passport?
“You see — here is the key from my cabinet, here is my photo into the certificate, there is the windows of my cabinet, let’s up, I will show you where is my table, where I work” — “Why I need it?!!! Let’s go we’ll puzzle out”.
It didn’t have any sense to resist to two armed people. Of course, I went with them. When I came into the gates of opposite building, I guessed by embrasures and fortifications that they were preparing for the attack. Looked back and seen nobody on the area, I completely understood what a stupidity I made! They were waiting for attack, and hello it’s me. I had very calm behaviour, even uninhibited manner and I photographed all of it.
Well, when they took away photo camera and looked at the pictures, which were on memory card… There was all Luhansk Maidan, the photos of Kyiv Maidan.
They said to me: “That is you successfully come to us! You should be shot right here!” — “What for?” — “And here is already all seen, who you are and what you are. We’d like to shoot you right here, or to shoot a foot at least. But we have experts, they will look into you” — “Give me a telephone at least — to tell my relatives what had happened” — “You’ll never need it”.
The car came after some time, they put the handcuffs on me. As I knew later I got into the «counter-terrorist unit» called «rapid response team» (RRT), which were headed by Aleksander Aleksandrovich Bednov, better known as “Batman”.
They took me to the territory of “mashinstitute” (East Ukrainian University — ed.), where this RRT based. When we came, one of them seemed familiar to me. They invited this “Batman”, gave the photo camera to him. He began to ask me a questions. “What I was doing there? The one of our batallions is located near. You was close to them with photo camera”. They again began to talk about beacons.
“What beacons?! — I said — Did you find any alike things with me?” — “So, we don’t need any similar, it’s enough what we found in your photo camera”. — “What have I done illegal? I’m amateur photographer, so what?”
“Why you have the stamp with trident on your certificate?”
“I’m an employee, I was given this certificate as such it was by my authority, nobody gave me the right to change it in any way”.
“You might come to us, to demonstrate civil consciousness and to delete this symbol of Ukraine”.
I still continued to consider that I can talk well-reasoned with this people…
I asked Batman: “Ok, now you’re saying that I must be with passport, but the passport is also with a trident”. They looked at each other and I got a strongest hit in my face as an answer.
Batman began to say next after that: “Well, now you’ll tell us everything, whom are you working for, why did you come back, what you was going to photograph, by whose orders. If you told everything, we will release you. And if you didn’t tell us, we will hit you, cut, skin and kill”. He began to told about this in details. I was looking at him and thought: what I must be an idiot to believe you that if I “told everything” I will be released with peace.
“In this case you can shoot me right here, because I don’t have anything to told about except I told you”.
At first I was taken in handcuffs into the cellar. It was awful: it was wet, the water flown on the tubes, there were mattresses and nearly dozen of people. The number of mattresses was clearly less than number of people.
“How do you sleep here?” — “In turn”.
There were people on the crutches, people with cut face, there was one obviously insane. They came for me for two hours and led me to another cellar. They said that the time has come to understand who I am. One of them, with the nickname “Khokhol” — colorful personality, demonstratively talked on the cleanest Ukrainian language, he was from Kyiv region — interested about the size of my shoes. “Good shoes, it seems to me, that you won’t need them after some time” — he said. They removed watches from my hand, emptied everything out of my pockets, even a trifle. One of the followers rudely ordered me to sit down. I sat on a dirty beton floor. At this time terrorist with the nickname “Maniak” hit me with his leg directly in my heart. I fell down. Another follower, “Yanek”, struck me with electroshock around the lumbar for a few times. It was very painful. “Khokhol” threw a loop of synthetic cord on me and began to asphyxiate me. All of them began to beat me with foots. I don’t remember how long it continued. After some time they made me to be up. They dragged me through the corridor with this loop-noose. They brought me to another room, which was the torture-room of their group. They began to demand the «recognitions». I, as I could, once again explained that I had nothing to confess. It became my misfortune that a few times I met with “Maniak” for my job. He was the regular executioner of this unit. Sometimes we exchanged the replicas about political events too. He was ardent Ukrainophobe. He told me how he was chained with special services, how they supplied Europe with drugs to decompose damned decadent West. He told that there is no such a country as Ukraine. Our country is the mistake. I opposed him as I could. This means that he knew my views and he knew who am I in the political position… He remembered me. But, he insisted that I’m working on somebody and realizing the special mission. He pulled out a thick synthetic thread, cut two pieces. He made two loops in my eyes. He demanded me to completely undress. He threw on both of my arms the loops, his assistants put me on the table, face down. He began methodically beat me with the plastic pipe segment on the heels, calves, thighs, on the back and on the shoulders.
Since there were no confessions from my side, he said: “Ok, so, I will break your fingers”. His henchmen fixed me, he took comfortably my hand and bent finger, so far as the joint possible and began to break out my fingers. For my happiness the table, where I laid, was weak and after my convulsive jerks it fell down. “Maniak” swore and temporary left me alone. He ordered to bring him a door leaf and said that he was going to make more radical actions. He took the field set of the surgeon and turned it. He said: “Here is my favourite instruments”. He showed pliers, surgical saw, other tools.
“And for you not to offense, that I can include some infection, look how I’m taking care of you” — and he demonstratively mocking handled saw with some disinfectant.
They put on the floor the door leaf, filled me down, held me for my hands and legs, a few men put their foots on me. “Maniak” took my left arm and began to inflict cuts (Aleksei reaches out his hand and shows thin scars between the phalanges -author). I wriggled and cried. They demanded the “recognition”. After that he began to made cuts in another place, for my happiness they turned out not so deep.
I’m sure that torturing me he got a real pleasure. I don’t remember how long it continued. In the end, it seems they got tired and they said that they interrupted for an hour. As he said, I was given “the last unique opportunity once again to think twice”, because after an hour they would come back and continue. They put the handcuffs on me and went back to camera, naked. They gave the order to another prisoners that I was prohibited to lay down and it was forbidden to communicate with me. As it was revealed later, when I first time was thrown into the camera and “Maniak” demanded me to sit down, one of the prisoners tried to give me a chair. When I was brought into the torture room, this prisoner was cruelty beaten. So, when they brought me to the camera back, the treatment to me was like I was plague-stricken. They didn’t come for me at that day. The only thing when I asked water, they gave a plastic bottle with water from the tap. I tried to calm down and to dazzle. I didn’t believe that man which wasn’t guilty in anything could be captured, thrown into the cellar, tortured because of some absolutely unfounded assumptions.
To be continued… read on informator.lg.ua
Written by Denis Matsola for informator.lg.ua.