A network of at least 20 torture chambers in Russian-occupied Kherson was “planned and directly funded by the Russian state”, war crimes investigators said Thursday, citing new evidence.The Mobile Justice Team, funded by the US, UK and EU, is cooperating with Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate war crimes committed in all Ukrainian territories that have been under Russian occupation and, in particular, in Kherson.Reuters reported on the extent of torture in Kherson in January, when Ukrainian authorities said around 200 people had been tortured in 10 locations. Survivors told Reuters of torture, including electric shocks and suffocation.Established in May 2022 by humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance with support from international experts, the mobile team supports the Office of the Attorney General of Ukraine, which has processed more than 71,000 war crimes reports across the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24. , 2022.
Mobile Justice Team Leader Wayne Jordash (file photo)
“New evidence collected in recently liberated Kherson shows that the torture chambers were planned and funded directly by the Russian state,” the group, formed by British lawyer Wayne Jordash, said in a statement.At least 1,000 survivors of in-cell torture provided evidence to investigators and more than 400 people were reported missing in Kherson, the statement said.Funding the network of torture chambers was part of the Russian state’s plan to “enslave, re-educate or kill Ukraine’s civilian leaders and dissidents”, the group said.The torture chambers were operated by various Russian security agencies, including the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the local Kherson FSB and the Russian Federal Prison Service, the report noted.
