They beat detainees for smiling: two Russian prison officers who tortured Ukrainians identified

Ukrainian law enforcement officers have served notices of suspicion on two Russian prison officers from Correctional Colony No. 1 of the Federal Penitentiary Service Directorate for Tula Oblast who tortured Ukrainians.

Source: Russian Torturers project

Details: The suspects were identified with the assistance of analysts from Ukraine's Defence Intelligence.

They are:

• Alexei Kochetov (born 28 February 1988), a native of Donskoy, Tula Oblast, Russia.
• Yevgeny Myasnikov (born 29 January 2000), a native of Donskoy, Tula Oblast, Russia.

At the time of the crimes in 2022, both men worked as junior inspectors at the maximum-security Correctional Colony No. 1 in Tula Oblast, located in Donskoy, 240 km from Moscow and 640 km from Kharkiv. Russia holds Ukrainian citizens, both prisoners of war and civilians, at this prison.

Investigators say Kochetov and Myasnikov, together with other prison staff and special forces officers, systematically subjected civilian detainees to physical and psychological violence motivated by hatred towards Ukrainians.

At least four men detained in Kyiv Oblast in March 2022 were among their victims.

The torture began as soon as the detainees arrived at the prison. During the so-called admission procedure, they were forced to run through a line of prison officers, each of whom tried to hit them with their hands, feet, rubber batons, plastic pipes or stun guns.

The beatings continued even as the detainees were subsequently escorted to their cells.

Prison officers forced their victims to adopt uncomfortable positions – facing a wall with their legs spread wide apart, their heads pressed against the wall and their palms turned outwards – and then punched and kicked them wherever they could. The victims lost their balance and consciousness from the blows and fell to the floor, after which they were forced to get back up and the beatings continued.

Kochetov also forced detainees into a push-up position, slapped them across the face, kicked them in the torso and stood on the back of a victim lying on the floor.

Myasnikov forced one of the victims to hang from a metal grille and punched him in the stomach. After the man jumped down, Myasnikov shocked him with a stun gun on the leg and neck.

The detainees were beaten for the slightest perceived offence or for no reason at all. Myasnikov beat one man with a baton and shocked him with a stun gun after seeing on CCTV that he was smiling. He beat another for getting dressed too slowly while leaving the shower room to go outside.

Kochetov and Myasnikov are suspected under Article 438.1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, concerning cruel treatment of civilians.

Their actions constitute serious violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol I and, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, constitute a war crime.

The criminal proceedings were entered into Ukraine's Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations under No. 42023000000000055 on 23 January 2023.

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