By Yoohwan Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
KYIV, Ukraine – A twenty year-old Ukrainian student, Ihor Indilo, died while he was in custody of Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky district police on May 25. The details of the death are unclear, but Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Nina Karpacheva, says Indilo died after he was beaten by the police. Karpacheva stated on June 1 that “this is the second time in the last several months a student held in the Shevchenkivsky police precinct has been murdered.”
Indilo, a fourth-year student at a Ukrainian teachers’ training college, had gone out with his friends to celebrate his twentieth birthday. After he returned to his dormitory, he was engaged in a quarrel with a dormitory patrol officer and he was brought into the police station.
Police claim that Indilo fell down several times and hit his head. Police then called his mother to tell her that he died by asphyxiation, after choking on his vomit. The student’s parents and rights activists believe, however, that he was a victim of police brutality.
When Indilo’s parents arrived at the morgue, they were not allowed to view their son’s body. Instead, they were told to claim the body first, and then inspect him. His parents received the medical examiner’s report that stated Indilo died due to a “hemorrhage of the brain, skull fracture, damage due to contact with blunt object.”
On June 1, Kyiv police chief, Olexiy Krykun, told lawmakers in parliament that Indilo died due to self-inflicted injuries. Krykun said, “He collapsed. I repeat: He fell down.” According to Krykun, Indilo was intoxicated when he arrived at the station and he was placed in a cell around 10pm. At 4am, Indilo was found lying on the floor next to a puddle of vomit.
This incident has sparked increased national protests and has highlighted the country’s long history of police brutality. Government authorities have taken measures after news broke out of Indilo’s death.
President Viktor Yanukovych placed himself in charge of the investigation. The Interior Minister, Anatoliy Mohilev, immediately suspended the police chief of the Shevchenkivsky police station, the policemen who brought Indilo to the station, and the precinct officers who were on duty that night.
The Shevchenkivsky district precinct is infamous in Kyiv for police brutality. Despite numerous allegations of police torture and unsanctioned methods, police officers are rarely either convicted or sent to prison.
For more information, please see:
KYIV POST – Student’s Death While in Kyiv Police Custody, Called a Murder by Top Official, Sparks Outrage – 3 June 2010
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY – Ukraine’s Ombudsman: Student’s Death In Police Custody Was Murder – 1 June 2010
MEDIA INTERNATIONAL GROUP NEWS – Shock! Student Killed in District Police Department – 27 May 2010
