Russian Security Official to be Tried for Torture
During the occupation of Kharkiv region, the accused ordered and participated in the detention and torture of local residents.
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“It is important for us to show that crimes have no borders and Russian criminals must be caught everywhere.”
Tuesday, 7 May ‘24
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An employee of Russia’s security services (FSB) will be tried in absentia for his alleged involvement in torturing civilians in March 2022 in Vovchansk, a town in the eastern region of Kharkiv. The Chuhuyiv city court scheduled the first hearing of the indictment against 52-year-old Maksim Zhivylo, who works for the 9th Department of the Operational Information Department of the FSB’s 5th Service, for May 22.
Located in the district of Chuhuyiv, Vovchansk lies about five kilometres from the Russian border and was occupied on the first day of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Ukrainian forces regained control of the town after six months of occupation on September 13, 2022. Since then, Russian forces have continued to shell it and only about 3,500 people remain of its nearly 18,000 pre-war population.
“They attached people to wires linked to batteries [to send electric shocks], and tortured them until they gave them the information they wanted. Mostly, these were men.”
According to the investigation, Zhivilo, who lives in the Moscow region, was sent to Vovchansk to suppress the resistance movement against the Russian forces and conduct “prevention” measures with locals with a pro-Ukrainian position.
After they were liberated, residents told journalists that Russians detained people in the basement of the local district police station and then took them to the territory of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant, the town’s factory, or to the occupied local prosecutor's office. They explained that people who did not support the Russian invasion were beaten, tortured with electric shocks or had their nails pulled out.
“They attached people to wires linked to batteries [to send electric shocks], and tortured them until they gave them the information they wanted. Mostly, these were men,” Ivan Zhilin, deputy chief of investigation of the Chuhuyiv police department, told Suspilne Media in March 2023.
The Ukrainian police released footage of the torture chambers, showing how people engraved on the walls the dates of their detention or texts of prayers.
In February 2024 a suspicion in absentia stated that on April 10, 2022 Zhivilo and ten military men stopped a 38-year-old resident of Vovchansk while he was driving his Skoda Rapid. They suspected him of cooperation with Ukraine’s armed forces and the security service of Ukraine, and of informing them about the locations of the Russian army. The victim gave them his documents, vehicle registration certificate and license.
Under the threat of being shot, the man was ordered to drive on, with two Russian soldiers with him. They arrived at the prosecutor's office building, where the victim was dragged to the basement. They put a cap on his head and face secured with scotch tape, then moved him to a chair where his hands were tied behind his back and also wrapped with scotch tape. They attached wires to his earlobes.
The victim was tortured with electric shocks and beaten for about four hours. Investigators stated that Zhivylo ordered and participated in the torture.
A few days later, the man was again masked and taken from the basement to the office on the second floor of the prosecutor's office for questioning. He was beaten again to obtain information that would confirm the Russians' assumptions about his alleged cooperation Ukraine’s forces and security service.
The interrogation was repeated a few days later. The victim was forced on a chair with his hands tied at hisback and was ordered to open his mouth and talk. The victim refused. The suspicion states that an FSB officer identified as Zhivylo ordered for the man's mouth to be forcibly opened: a metal object was inserted between the jaws. The victim's lips and gums were pierced several times with a sharp object, his teeth were sawed off with a file. The man was beaten again and continued to be interrogated.
The victim was kept in the torture chamber for 86 days. According to the prosecutor's office he then managed to escape, swam across the river and reached the territory controlled by Ukrainian troops.
Zhivylo is accused of cruel treatment of the civilian population in collusion with a group of persons in violation of the laws and customs of war as per Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code. The investigation identified him through the victim’s and other witnesses’ testimonies and photo identification protocols.
The pre-trial investigation established that Zhivylo is in Russia. On March 25, 2024, the Kharkiv Kyiv district court gave permission for a special pre-trial investigation and at the end of April it was sent to court.
The court has summoned all parties to the case to the preparatory hearing of May 22. If Zhivylo fails to appear at the preliminary hearing three times, the prosecutor's office will be allowed to request a special trial in absentia, as per provision of Ukraine’s criminal law. If found guilty, the accused faces between eight to twelve years in prison.
