To fifteen thousand prisoners contains in the places of concluding on the occupied territories of Donbass. They weren’t removed to the rear in the heat of combat operations. A lot of this people who were judged or incarcerated by Ukrainian laws have had to get out into the wild. “The authorities” of the “people’s republics” are not in hurry to let the Ukraine liberated «prisoners». Experts are puzzling and looking for the exit from this situation. Prisoners in their turn are complaining for the unbearable conditions of detention.

It was not enough only one day

“At the beginning of this year my documents went to the court for the grant of parole. There I was released by the court. It was not enough one day for this decision to drive to colony — Vitaliy, one of the prisoners of the colony, which is located on occupied part of Donbass, tells about this by the telephone. — The deputy for policy or somebody else from staff might to go for the documents. There began the shooting, they were frightened and didn’t go. If they didn’t scared, I’d release at the moment after the entry into force ofthe documents. Now I have a copy of this decision, but I’m still not released. I came to the “master” and say: “And so, Sanych I have the resolution of the court that I might be released for the grant of parole. And he’s saying to me: “You can hang it on the wall in your barrack”.

According to Vitaliy’s words new jail “authorities” don’t recognize Ukrainian jurisdiction and refuse to release prisoners  by a decision of the Ukrainian courts.

“Today mother send with route-bus the application, where she in a short form described all this situation and attached there the ruling on the release. Maybe it will reach or maybe not, because post doesn’t work.  Nobody do anything, everywhere only promises: “We’ll consider, look, help”. The same as me is a dozen of people in our colony. I really don’t know and can’t understand why they need us and why they don’t release us? I was judged by Ukrainian court and released by Ukrainian court. It’s half a year already, that I should to walk in freedom. Why they carry me here? I’m here unlawfully, if all by the law, this means that I’m a free man!  I have a six month till the end of my original term, I have a wish to release earlier on a month or two for mother to survive to this moment and at home work no end” — tell the prisoner.

Vitaliy complains on the absence of the medicines in the infirmary and tells that in a case of illness prisoners may only rely on the help of his brothers in misfortune.

“There is iodine, Zelenka from the medicines and that’s all. Even analgin is absent. However, volunteers say that they bring it to us. I don’t know how to explain it to you, we have “a people’s move” here. This means when the infirmary don’t have something, we gather it between us. Who has something to help we use it for patients. We almost don’t see anything from the administration” — tells Vitaliy.

Released but don’t free

The mother of Vitaliy, Ekaterina Sergeevna most readily tells about the conditions of detention of his son.

“He sits there hungry and cold. He says to me: “Mom, I’m laying hungry and getting up hungry. They give us black bread, like the ground. They give us stuff like stew, I crumble there this black bread and eat it. There is a lot of bedbugs. I’m catching them like the dog fleas, because they bite and then blisters jumps on the body”.

There absolutely no hygiene products and medicine! He says: “Mom I shaved and I don’t know what to put on my face. I tore the plantain and quatrefoil and put them”. Heat and mud around! First time the shells flew over the zone, he sat and tolerate. Can you imagine this?! How my heart hurts, because my child was shot and then he is muzzled hunger and thrown to be devoured by bedbugs?! It must be done something, because people will die there! POWs released. So, who are this people in this case?” — outraged Ekaterina Sergeevna.

Mama of Vitaliy is shocked by the absence of any interest for the de jure released prisoners both from Ukraine and from the «people’s republics».

“He calls me and says: “This one was killed, this one was shot… They open the gates and say: if you want you can go! Mama, I can’t anymore! I don’t know what to do? Maybe runaway?” I’m saying to him: “Sonny, if you have a brains in your head so sit and be patient, where will you go without the documents?” We had one man released, I came to him and asked… He was beaten for three days by our “ukrops”, they thought that he was a saboteur, then they released him and he had the documents of this “militants” that he is “liberated”… And nobody do anything according to my son, nobody cares” — mother complaints.

They’ve been sitting until it will work…

“During the armed conflict the authorities of Ukraine has made two amnesties in the last year and in April of this year — tell the coordinator of the human rights group from Kharkiv Andrei Didenko — The number of the prisoners, located in the custodies on uncontrolled territories fall under the amnesty by all criteria. This prisoners must be or released or their term must be reduced, however so-called “authorities” of this territories ignore the decisions of central Ukrainian power, including the decisions about amnesty”.

It’s impossible to detect the number of illegally held prisoners according to his words.

“We get the information from “there” we get only from one source. It’s the convicted and their relatives, that’s why it is not clear and needs to be checked. The things taken place there can’t be described by any of legal analysis. I still already receive every day the complaints from the prisoners, where they told how their rights are violated. They’re telling that convicted to life imprisonment are got away and made to take the weapon in their arms. Some of such prisoners have been come back, because they didn’t justify «the given trust». The official statistics about uncontrolled territories is absent. It’s approximately known that to 15 thousand of prisoners are on the uncontrolled territory of Luhansk and Donetsk regions” — tells Andrei Didenko.

The separate problem, according to the words of the human rights activist, is the unlawful detention of the accused in the pre-trial detentions of «people’s republics».

“The courts don’t work and the procedure of investigation is blocked on the uncontrolled territory. Because of this the persons who were at the stage of the investigation at the moment of the beginning of the conflict often held in jail indefinitely. The sanctions, preventive measures, which were appointed by Ukrainian courts, have already ended a long time ago. There is nobody who can elect new and also to accept the decision for the prosecution or for the benefit of protection. This people are only held in the remands, ostensibly to the moment when “judicial system of the republic” begins to work. So, there are people who are detained without any justification. We have a few clients who say that there were all the grounds to suppose that I will be acquitted, because witnesses say in my favor, and lawyers provide irrefutable evidences of the innocence”. But there is no courts and such cases are in limbo. It’s very hard once again to call the exact number of people caught in this situation, but I think that we are talking about several hundred people” — says Andrei Didenko.

For The Freedom — to human rights defenders

However, even if “republican authorities” will free the man, this doesn’t mean the end of his torments.

“One of the problems is the legality of releasing people, custodied on the territory controlled by Russian and terrorist forces. When prisoner is released, he is given the “certificates” of “DPR” and “LPR”, which, of course, don’t have any juridical power on the territory of Ukraine. If the man was released with such certificate he doesn’t have no other way except to move on Ukrainian block-post and to report about this. After this he will be checked by SSU” — explains the human rights defender. To avoid the luck of the man from the story of the mother of the prisoner Vitaliy, Andrei Didenko advices to apply for help to the human rights organizations.

“We had the precedents, when we organized alike passage to controlled territory. We reported in advance to the block-post that the man, released from the concluding with documents of “DPR” or “LPR”, came out to them. Such actions help the prisoners” — explains Andrei Didenko.

The human rights defenders advice: if your relatives contain in jails on the uncontrolled territories more than their term, you need to connect with  attorneys of Kharkiv human rights group. They help to prepare and submit the applications to the European Court of Human Rights. This application are sent against Ukrainian side, which is not capable to protect its citizens on this area, and against Russian — as a country aggressor in this conflict.

“It’s a long and thorny road, which takes a few years. But it’s the one way to fix and document the violations of human rights and access to lawyers of Kharkiv human rights group, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union on this stage of the conflict. They are competent and profiled in this direction” — says Andrei Didenko.

The telephones of Kharkiv human rights group:

+38 (050) 323-20-56; +38(057) 700-62-81; +38(057) 700-67-72

The telephones of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union:

+38 (044)383-95-19; +38 (0444) 417-41-18

Denis Matsola for informator.lg.ua