Ukraine has launched an investigation into the suspected case of war crimes committed by head of Russia’s notorious Taganrog prison Aleksandr Shtoda.
Ukraine’s national police service and its chief war crimes prosecutor announced on Thursday that Shtoda who took over as the head of the prison in October 2022, has been placed under investigation. Located on the border with occupied Ukraine, the Sizo 2 pre-trial detention centre in Taganrog has been the venue of systematic starvation and torture of hundreds of Ukrainian detainees.
“During the period of the suspect’s leadership in Sizo No 2 in Taganrog, Rostov region, a system of repressive treatment of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, including civilians, was organised,” Ukraine’s national police service said in the statement.
The charges against Shtoda following the investigation into the case of journalist Victoriia Roshchnya who died in captivity in Taganrog prison where she spent approximately nine years after being captured in occupied parts of Ukraine. Roshchnya’s body was repatriated earlier this year. There were signs of torture in the late journalist’s body although the circumstances around her death are not known. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Police claim Shtoda was subjected to “humiliations, systematic torture, threats, severe restrictions on access to medical care, drinking water and food, and was deprived of the opportunity to sleep or sit during the day”. The investigation has revealed that Shtoda gave orders to apply physical and psychological torture to the journalist and that his actions amount to a war crime.
