Prisoners are tortured and used as slaves en masse in prisons of "the DPR/LPR" – investigation

At least 79 prisons where prisoners were tortured are located in 28 settlements of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics". Investigation published by the German Deutschlandfunk social and legal radio station contains such data, - reports Deutsche Welle.

According to the radio station, 17 Ukrainian human rights organizations have collected evidence documents and plan to submit them to the Hague Tribunal for investigation of possible war crimes. According to Alexandra Matviychuk of Center for Civil Liberties NGO, the human rights are violated en masse in the "LPR" and "DPR".

The organization representative said that its staff had interwied 165 people. "We can prove that last summer four thousand were" illegally detained on the territory of self-proclaimed republics, - said Matviychuk. According to her, the real numbers may be even higher. "Relatives do not resort to our organization, because they do not believe that we could help them, they do not resort to the Ukrainian security services because they do not trust them and are afraid," - said Matviychuk.

As Deutschlandfunk notes referring to one of the prisoners of such an improvised prison, many people are arrested under false pretenses and used as free workforce to construct barricades or repair military equipment.

Germany's special coordinator for Russia policy Gernot Erler has already reacted to Deutschlandfunk investigation. "I am deeply shocked by the things occurred. It is important that the involvement of the Russian military in these crimes is established," - he said.