Ministry of Justice Seeking Investor for Kyiv Prison Site

The Ministry of Justice is considering selling the building of Lukianivske pre-trial detention center (SIZO) through a public-private partnership modality.

As Deputy Minister Natalia Sevostianova explained to Deutsche Welle [ed.: the text of this hyperlink is in the Ukrainian language], a private investor is expected to develop a new penitentiary facility on the land plot in Kyiv suburban area.

"After the new building is ready and Lukianivske SIZO is transferred there, the investor would be provided the land plot where the SIZO is currently located along with all buildings on it," she noted.

According to Sevostianova, the Ministry of Justice is preparing independent assessment of this property. Its findings have to be acknowledged by foreign banks. The Ministry is also looking for an example of a penitentiary facility successfully developed and launched in an EU country during the past ten years so as to replicate it here in Ukraine.

Financial experts are carrying out a preliminary estimate of the development of a new building to accommodate Kyiv SIZO. "All the processes have to be transparent, open and competition-based," Sevostianova commented.

So far, it remains an open question under which conditions the investor would be provided the land plot and buildings of the SIZO, and whether it would be allowed to demolish existing buildings. The Ministry of Justice is awaiting the decision of the Culture Ministry on the historical value of SIZO buildings.

If this project works out in Kyiv, the Ministry is going to reproduce the same modality – public-private partnership on moving a SIZO outside the city limits – in Lviv and Kharkiv.

Yevgen Zakharov, Head of the Board of the Ukrainian the Helsinki Human Rights Union, is sure that the SIZO should have been moved to the suburbs a long time ago. "Moreover, it is necessary to limit the number of detainees, as SIZOs are overcrowded. Pre-trial restrictions other than detention should be used for suspects," he believes.

Yurii Bielousov, a former representative of Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and a human rights activist, told Deutsche Welle: "Changes of pre-trial detention conditions have long been discussed, but no tangible actions were taken because of corruption. The detainees paid a lot to be moved from terrible, dirty, cramped cells to normal conditions, and the prison management cashed in on it, so they blocked all the reforms." Now the reform may be successful, as investors are interested in Lukianivske SIZO and its land plot in downtown Kyiv, he says.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda