Rape in Kagarlyk: before the court verdict, two accused were suddenly mobilized in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

They took him to the forest, ordered him to lie down on the ground without clothes, and started dousing him with ice water and beating him.

This case in May 2020 excited the whole country without exaggeration. It all started with the fact that the victim of police torture was 26-year-old Nelya Pogrebitskaya, who on the night of May 24 was summoned for interrogation in the case of the robbery of a rural store. The victim was summoned to the police station, where they beat her, choked her with a gas mask, and raped her.

On May 25, two policemen, one of whom severely beat and the other raped Nelya, were detained. Then suspicion was brought to the attention of the third officer who helped torturing the woman. At the end of 2020, the case was taken to court, and there were already five defendants and three episodes in the dock.

The indictment says that the police officers raped the victims, beat them with rubber sticks, punched and kicked, and used tear gas. One of the episodes took place in January 2020. The indictment says that three policemen (among whom were those who later mocked Nelya Pogrebitskaya) took the victims to a clearing, ordered them to lie down on the ground without clothes, after which they poured ice water over them for half an hour and beat them.

As for Nelya, she was summoned for interrogation unofficially - they asked her neighbor to tell her to enter the police station. The interrogation concerned the robbery of a rural store that had taken place the day before. The store was robbed by a local resident. After the robbery, this man with a stolen bottle of alcohol was seen in the company, where Nelya was also. Talking about what happened, Nelya admitted that she had long been afraid of the policeman who called her in for questioning: “He threatened me before. Once he said: “When I call you, you must give me.” Since then, I have tried to avoid it. I didn’t want to go to this interrogation either … “

According to Nelya, the policeman immediately categorically told her that she was in that store, and when Nelya did not agree to admit what was not there, he put a gas mask on her and began to choke her. Then his colleague came and they started beating Nelya together. They broke her nose, did not let her go to the toilet (as a result of which the woman wet herself), threatened with weapons. Then a third policeman came and raped her: “He told me: “Today you will be mine. I will tear you apart.”

Later, when the whole country was already discussing the incident, some residents of Kagarlyk said that they had also been tortured by these policemen at one time. The defendants themselves did not admit their guilt, called the accusations far-fetched and refused to testify, calling the investigation biased and biased.

“I don’t believe that the accused joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine because of the obligation to defend the state”

Now, three years after the incident with Nelya Pogrebitskaya, a verdict must finally be passed in a high-profile case. However, the situation suddenly changed, as reported on Facebook lawyer Anna Kalinchuk:

“As of 5 defendants, only two remained.

Today, the judicial debate on the case on charges of police officers of the Kagarlitsky OP in committing rape, torture and enforced disappearance of 5 victims could have ended, today the court could have gone to the deliberation room to make a decision, but this did not happen.

The court session was postponed, since one of the accused was allegedly mobilized into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sent to “some” of the military units, and where exactly…

Another one of the 5 defendants also “mobilized” just before the start of the judicial debate. Today, the court was supposed to decide on the suspension of proceedings against him, again in connection with the mobilization.

Another of the defendants in the case mobilized immediately with the start of a full-scale invasion. I have no questions for him. A person immediately, and not after 1.3 years, not before the final stage of the trial, not out of fear of making a probably negative decision, voluntarily went to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Two more, thank you, are in custody and will not be able to get their “lucky ticket” to freedom.

Why lucky ticket? Because I do not believe that two of the accused, who mobilized in the last week before the court went into deliberation, went to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a sense of obligation to defend the state. I do not believe, because there is no reason for this. I observed their behavior in the courtroom for three years. And I can’t call it any other than “waiting for the right moment”, I can’t …

Where these two will serve is unknown, perhaps in a security company in the Kyiv region, far from hostilities, perhaps in the rear, military units are provided.

I am very triggered that military service is being manipulated in this way. And I think it’s unfair and unworthy.

And yes, the court is deprived of the opportunity to act differently, and someday, perhaps, the trial against the mobilized will be resumed, and decisions will be made. Of course, if … and many variables further.

Accused in the episode of the victim Nelya Pogrebitskaya in custody. The fate of these accused will be decided by the court without the possibility of mobilization.

will follow developments.

Earlier it was reported that in Volyn a policeman who knocked people to death at a checkpoint also asked to join the army so as not to go to prison.

Read on “Censor.NET”: Free and even without an electronic bracelet: why the suspect in the murder of 5-year-old Kirill Tlyavov was released from custody

In the photo in the title: the defendants in the dock. Photo Public