Ukraine accuses protesters of ‘torturing’ cop
2014-02-01 21:58
(Sergei Supinsky, AFP)
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Kyiv – Ukrainian authorities on Saturday accused
opposition protesters of “torturing” a police officer in the basement
of an occupied public building in Kyiv as an opposition politician looked on.
The interior ministry said protesters in the capital Kyiv
on Friday night captured a policeman who wore plain clothes while on duty.
He was beaten and taken to the Kyiv mayor’s office
building, which is being occupied by demonstrators. Once there, he was
“tortured”, the ministry said.
“There they took away the policeman’s ID and
personal belongings and continued to hit him multiple times,” the ministry
said in a statement.
The policeman was hospitalised with a head injury and
concussion, said the ministry, adding that a member of the Svoboda (Freedom)
nationalist party, Yuriy Levchenko, was present during the beating but did not
intervene.
There was no immediate comment from Svoboda.
The opposition has over the past two months been locked
in a confrontation with the government of President Viktor Yanukovych.
Several people including protesters and police were shot
dead during a recent outbreak of violence in the Ukrainian capital, parts of
which have been turned into a battle zone.
The opposition fears the government may use the army to
crush the protest movement which was sparked by Yanukovych’s decision to scrap
a pact with the EU in November.
The interior ministry said last week the protesters
captured three policemen wounding one of them with a knife.
The opposition has cast doubt on that claim.
A prominent opposition activist, who reappeared Thursday
night after going missing more than a week ago, said he was tortured by
unidentified assailants.
Dmytro Bulatov said his captors had cut off an ear and
driven nails through his hands before dumping him in a forest.
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