Facts

SBI Director: This year, materials on 75 law enforcement officers transferred to court due to torture charges

In 2025, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) sent 44 criminal cases to court against 75 people related to torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers, said SBI Director Oleksiy Sukhachev.

In a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, he noted that the State Bureau of Investigation has opened 350 criminal cases related to these crimes this year.

"44 indictments against 75 people - employees of law enforcement agencies and the State Criminal Executive Service - have already been sent to court," he said.

According to the director of the State Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau, together with the Council of Europe, has introduced training programs for investigators and is preparing its own trainers, and is working with the Ministry of Justice on a system of preventive measures. "After all, prevention of such crimes is no less important than punishment - this is the only way to change the culture of the law enforcement system itself," Sukhachev emphasized.

He noted that at the end of 2024, a specialized unit to combat torture was created within the structure of the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigations, and another 157 investigators in the regions work in the corresponding specialization. Also, according to Sukhachev, a subsystem for monitoring complaints about torture has been introduced into the Bureau's document management system, which allows tracking the movement of each application.

The Director of the State Bureau of Investigation also reported that the Bureau had submitted proposals to the Prosecutor General’s Office to create a Roadmap of Unified Detention Standards.

"It should provide for mandatory video recording, an electronic detention protocol, a ban on informal communication with detainees, as well as an analysis of compliance with the requirements of the law regarding the complete and timely documentation of such cases," he specified.

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