Three collaborators to face trial for torturing teenager in Kupiansk district

Three men who tortured a minor during the temporary capture by the Russian invaders of the Kupiansk district in the Kharkiv region will stand trial.

The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office approved and sent to the court an indictment against two men, 28 and 33, over collaborative activities (Part 7 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and violation of the laws and customs of war due to a prior conspiracy by a group (Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and a 28-year-old citizen under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The three defendants are residents of the Kupiansk district. According to the investigation, during the occupation of the community, the 33-year-old defendant became deputy head of the criminal investigation department of the "Department of Internal Affairs of the Temporary Civil Administration of the Kharkiv Region."

In turn, the 28-year-old accused assumed the position of acting assistant precinct inspector of the "department of precinct police inspectors." The third suspect is a 28-year-old unemployed resident of the district.

In the summer of 2022, a 16-year-old boy was returning home in a settlement of the Kupiansk district. At that time, a car approached him, from which three armed defendants, dressed in military uniforms, got out.

They dragged the boy to the car by force and took him to the torture chamber set up in the premises of the Kupiansk district police department. The victim was kept there for 16 days.

The men tortured and abused the teenager: they put a gas mask on his head blocking his airways and forced him to squat and do floor push-ups. Also, the culprits systematically beat the child, almost did not feed him, and instead of drinking water, they gave him technical water.

They ordered the boy to clear the rubble caused by Russian shelling and forced him to wash the cars of the Russian military.

The accused tried to obtain information from a 16-year-old boy about pro-Ukrainian citizens and participants in the Anti-Terrorist Operation/Joint Forces Operation (ATO/JFO) in the Kupiansk district.

The accused have been declared wanted. They will be tried in absentia in the Chervonozavodskyi District Court of Kharkiv.

Photo credit: Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office/Facebook