Ternopil imposes preventive measures on military personnel suspected of kidnapping and torturing people

The hearings were held for two days, on October 16 and 17, as the defendants requested to replace their state attorneys. Some of them were ready to be granted bail, but the court refused and kept them in custody.

The prosecutor stated that he was against the suspect being granted bail:

“The crimes in this criminal case are crimes involving the use of physical violence. There were threats and beatings of the victims. That is, while at large, the suspect will be able to influence the victims either personally or through other persons to change the testimonies given or refuse to give testimony”.

As a reminder, on October 15, the Ternopil region police exposed a group of military personnel involved in violent and property crimes. The investigation established that they illegally deprived people of their liberty, tortured, beat, extorted money and took away property.

In particular, the attackers took away a KIA car from a 27-year-old resident of Ternopil, which was later found in the Kyiv region. One of the victims, a serviceman undergoing treatment, was kidnapped right off the street, beaten, threatened with a weapon and demanded 50 thousand hryvnias. Another man was forcibly put into a minibus using tear gas, taken out of town, stripped naked, doused with a flammable substance, and forced to run in front of a car, after which he was beaten and held for three days in inhumane conditions. Another episode was recorded in Ivano-Frankivsk region, where the victim’s car was stolen.