Citizen Journal, January 24, 2014
Translated by: Olesia Kis
Source: http://citizenjournal.info/?id=15028 (Photo/Video)

Berkut riot police is reported to have clubbed the student severely, who was detained during the violent protest on Hrushevsky Street

On Jan 20. The victim, 17-year old student of Chernivtsi College of Economy, Mykhaylo Nyzkohuz, revealed the truth about his detainment during his interview. 

Mykhaylo says he was not participating in the riots, he was just taking pictures with his phone. When the memory card was full, he stopped and began to delete the old photos. That very moment he was seized by Berkut and pulled away from the barricades. 

“Berkut directed me through a corridor of 40 policemen, each of them kicked me, and others clubbed, spat on me, insulted and humiliated me. They cried out: “Where is your Bandera*, if you are lying here now? He will not help you”, – reports Mykhaylo.

“When I passed this corridor, the commander of the Kharkiv division of Berkut came up to me and ordered them to take off my clothes. I was undressed and then they sprayed my whole body with pepper spray – every single centimeter – from the knees to the very head. They were standing and laughing at me, while I was writhing in pain,” – confesses the boy. “One of them pulled out a knife and carved my thigh.”

After that Berkut put the teenager into a police riot truck for 4 long hours without any medical aid. Mykhaylo continues: “There were several boys by the police truck. The commander came up to each of them and asked if their teeth were safe. One boy gave

a positive answer. So the commander began to beat the poor boy until he knocked out his teeth.”

Police wanted to take me into the police station, but “the doctors insisted on my hospitalization as I was bleeding and my hand was broken.”

On Jan 22nd, the court decided to keep the boy under house arrest for 2 months. He is charged with par. 294, part 2 of Criminal Code – arrangement of public disturbance that led to death or other serious consequences – and can be sentenced to 8-15 years of imprisonment. 

MP Iryna Sekh announced the boy was taken to the hospital in poor condition. She told the police prosecution is based only on the statement of the Kharkiv Berkut commander named Vasylenko. 

The MP said the lawyers together with the boy’s father were working on the claim against Berkut treatment. Mykhaylo will go to court as a victim, not a suspect. He is going to have a suit against the Berkut police personnel for the violent crime affecting him and 2 other boys, who were with him, but their identities and location remain unknown for the moment. 

*Stepan Bandera – the Ukrainian revolutionary politician and one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine during the Soviets.