Ternopil enlistment office staff members charged with torture, illegal imprisonment
A commander of the security department at the Ternopil military enlistment office had been charged with torture, and another staff member of the same department had been charged with illegal imprisonment, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Oct. 12.
On the evening of Oct. 6, the latter of the suspects, accompanied by two unidentified people in military uniforms, stopped a local resident in Ternopil to check his documents, the prosecutors said.
Upon discovering that the man was born in Russia, the alleged perpetrators decided to take him to the local recruitment office. When the resident refused, the suspect and his companions physically assaulted him and forcibly took him to their headquarters.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, the victim was born in Murmansk, Russia, but is a Ukrainian citizen.
The video of the incident appeared the day later on the local 20 Minutes news channel.
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Soon after, another video appeared on social media, showing staff members of the Ternopil enlistment office violently beating two recruits. According to the prosecutors, the victim from the earlier incident was among those who were beaten.
The investigation established that the violent incident was caused by an altercation between the two recruits and an enlistment officer the previous day.
The recruits were reportedly drunk and attempted to take a weapon from the officer, which eventually led to them being beaten, the prosecutors reported.
Enlistment offices across the country came under the attention of the authorities after journalists discovered in June that the family of the ex-head of the Odesa Oblast military enlistment office had acquired property worth $4.5 million since the start of the full-scale invasion.
This led to a nationwide inspection that uncovered already 260 cases of suspected violations by enlistment offices and military medical commissions, the State Bureau of Investigation reported on Oct. 10.
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