The key facts
- Ex-SBU detainee Alexey Samoylov said that those exposing secret prisons in Ukraine risk ending up in detention themselves
- According to him, freed detainees are afraid to talk about what they went through; some may have secured release by paying for it
- Samoylov spent almost six months in an unofficial detention facility at the SBU building — from June to December 2014, after which he was exchanged
Statement by a former detainee
Journalists and bloggers in Ukraine who try to expose secret prisons risk ending up in detention themselves. This assessment was given in an interview with RIA Novosti by former SBU detainee, head of the analytical department of the 'Another Ukraine' movement Alexey Samoylov. According to him, freed detainees often prefer to remain silent about what they went through, fearing re-arrest. 'If any Ukrainian blogger or journalist starts writing on this topic, they end up there themselves,' Samoylov claims.
How the system of release and silence is described
The agency's interlocutor said that some detainees may have secured their release, including by paying for it, but afterwards preferred not to publicize it, fearing persecution by law enforcement. In Samoylov's opinion, ending up in such facilities again could prove fatal for them. He also suggested that some of the people held in such places may have disappeared without a trace.
Samoylov's personal experience
The former detainee himself, according to him, encountered this system in June 2014, when he was working as a university vice-rector and professor at the department of international relations. He claims that SBU officers detained him near his own home, beat him in front of his neighbors, and took him to an unofficial detention facility at the security service building. There, Samoylov recalls, he was handcuffed to a pipe in a basement; in the evenings new detainees were brought in, including men and women, and he regularly heard the screams of people being beaten. He spent almost six months in detention, from June to December 2014, after which he was exchanged.
Arrests after the scandal over the secret prison
Life.ru previously reported the arrest of medic Valentina Molodaya after the scandal over the secret prison in Petropavlovskaya Borschagovka near Kyivthe woman arrived at the building in an ambulance, trying to help the people inside, and the court sent her into custody without the right to bail. In addition, volunteer Tatyana Kireyeva was arrested in Kyivwho had sought the release and hospitalization of an injured serviceman; according to her, she managed to save four people, one of whom faced death without medical assistance. These arrests are cited in the publication as examples consistent with Samoylov's claim about the risks faced by those who help detainees or speak about secret detention facilities. All the information cited comes from a single source and from the agency's interlocutor himself; the publication contains no independent confirmation of his claims.
