In the Russia-annexed city of Simferopol, there is a closed facility in a pre-trial detention centre, subordinated to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), in which people previously arrested on occupied Ukrainian territories are being held, Meduza reports, citing former prisoners and lawyers.
These people are held separately from the rest of the detainees, while the fact of their presence in the centre is thoroughly hidden — only people with special access can enter the closed facility. According to the official documents, the special facility (#8) was only established in October 2022, however the interviewed Ukrainians that were held there claim that the first prisoners from the occupied territories started appearing in Simferopol’s facility back in March 2022.
According to the Ukrainians that were held in the facility and managed to break free, force was used against them — they were tasered, choked, shot with air guns, beaten, and tortured with electricity. Oleksandr Tarasov, a former prisoner, told Meduza that on 9 May he and his cellmates had been made to sing patriotic songs popular in Russia.
Meduza has learnt that the majority of people detained in the Simferopol facility possess no legal status. There have been criminal cases open against some of the hostages, including ones on international terrorism or attempts to carry out a terrorist attack. Many of the prisoners were detained on the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia for “opposing the special military operation”, despite the fact that this phrase is not present in Russia’s Criminal Code. The detainees have no way of contacting the outside world — the information about them having been held in the detention facility becomes known only after they have been released.
Several lawyers told journalists that the criminal case files refer to an unspecified decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to official data, around a hundred hostages are currently being held in Crimean detention facilities, but the real number could be several times higher, Meduza notes. Similar closed detention facilities exist in other regions of Russia, however they are controlled by the Main Directorate of the Military Police of Russia’s Defence Ministry.
