“If the Ukrainian government really wishes to reach an agreement of association with the European Union by 2007, it must begin immediately to reform its system of penal justice, eliminate torture and secure justice for the victims”, says a Report of Amnesty International published in recent days. The Report denounces the use of force and torture by the Ukrainian security forces to extort confessions and admissions of guilt from detainees. It describes the impunity from which the members of the police forces responsible for maltreatment benefit, and underlines the weaknesses of the system of penal justice in Ukraine that favours the diffusion of torture, including the poor conditions of remand centres and lack of safeguards for prisoners. “The Ukrainian authorities admit that the police abuse their own powers to close as large a number of cases as possible with whatever means”, says the Report. Police abuses are also fuelled by the high level of corruption: “it is well known that policemen beat up detainees to extort money from them”. The Report, in conclusion, makes twenty recommendations to the Ukrainian authorities against torture and the phenomenon of impunity.
