Crimea resident suspected of railroad sabotage says he was battered, tortured with electric shock

Kirill Barannik, a resident of Russia-occupied Crimea suspected of a railroad sabotage act, has appealed to the Russian Investigative Committee’s Crimea branch to complain about battery and electric shock torture he was subjected to, Graty quotes the document as saying.

According to Barannik, the tortures began on 30 May immediately after he confessed during an interrogation. “They put me on a table, tied my arms and legs with scotch tape, and connected electric wires that fed the pulse into my fingers, which left electrical shock marks. Their presence should be recorded in a medical checkup record which was conducted in the detention facility.”

he said.

The official detention report was drafted on 31 May. Barannik was arrested the next day and sent to a detention facility.

According to the detainee, the torture continued on 5-6 June when in the night he was taken to an FSB office to face even more electric shock torture for about 3-4 hours. The man was subjected to even more torture on 9-10 June:

“They first tortured me through electric terminals connected to fingers, toes, earlobes, and buttocks.”

“I believe that was the reason a rib on the right side of my body broke. Moreover, my kidneys are very sore after this torment and I partially lost feeling in the right hand,” Barannik noted. He also claims that the FSB officers threatened to kill his mother if he refused to plead guilty for a railroad explosion carried out near the village of Chistenkoye on 18 May.

Barannik was detained on the Salgir embankment in Simferopol on 30 May. According to Graty, a bag was put on his head, and the man was, presumably, taken to the regional FSB office. The Crimean resident pleaded guilty to sabotage on the railway in the Bakhchisaray district, which took place on 23 February.

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Barannik’s case is investigated by FSB detectives Alexander Lavrov and Alexander Kuznetsov. Graty notes that Lavrov was involved in the case of Yevpatoria-based artist Bohdan Ziza, who poured blue and yellow paint over the city mayor’s office. Ziza claimed that Lavrov battered him and forced him to deliver a memorised confession of guilt on camera. On 6 June, Ziza was sentenced to 15 years in prison.