In the case of the rape of a woman by law enforcement officers in Kaharlyk, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv left the verdict of the first instance unchanged — in May 2023, the perpetrators were sentenced to 11 years in prison.
This was reported by human rights defender Olena Sotnyk.
"Almost 5 years in investigative actions, then — the courts, and here it is the final victory point," Sotnyk wrote.
The courtʼs decision came into force today.
What business is it about?
According to the investigation, on the night of May 23-24, 2020, law enforcement officers Mykola Kuziv and Serhiy Sulyma beat and raped Nelya Pohrebytska several times in their office, who was called to the district department as a witness. After the publicity, both were dismissed from the authorities, on May 26 of the same year they were notified of suspicions under part. 1 Art. 152 (rape), Art. 127 (torture), ch. 2 Art. 365 (exceeding power or official authority by a law enforcement officer, which was accompanied by violence).
Nelya Pohrebytska, who was raped and beaten by policemen in the Kaharlyk branch, said that there are also other women who suffered from the actions of one of the policemen. After that, the head of the National Police at the time Ihor Klymenko decided to disband the Kaharlyk unit.
In July, two more employees of the police department were informed about the suspicion. In addition, SBI discovered new facts of torture of detainees in the Kaharlyk district police department.
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