The Secret Compound

Hromadske has published an investigation which confirms that the so-called "secret prisons of the SBU" really operated. The existence of these secret locations in the Kharkiv pre-trial detention center was reported on earlier by two international human rights organizations – “Human Rights  Watch” and “Amnesty International.”

For over a year 5 people were detained in pre-trial detention in Kharkiv without trial or investigation. According to them – in a video where the Head of the SBU Vasyl Hrytsak demonstrates detention cells – there are many more hidden details. In January 2017 Hromadske journalists visited the Kharkiv department of the Ukrainian Security Service and confirmed these facts – finding evidence of prison life there. One of the detainees, Mykola Vakaruk, was taken to hospital in Kharkiv under a different name. Later, when he and Hromadske journalists visited this same hospital, all of the staff recognized him.

Another person was recognized as a victim after a criminal investigation by the Military Prosecutor’s Office. On January 16 2018, in response to an inquiry about the case, Hromadske received a reply that it had already been closed on March 10 2017, due to the absence of any crime committed.

See Hromadske’s documentary investigation on our Facebook page on March 16 at 19:00.