Story of Hennadi

[trigger warning; torture]

On May 9, 2014, some unknown people attacked me, took me down to the ground, put my hands behind me, and handcuffed me, holding me like that for 767 days. They put a bag over my head and threw me into a car. These guys kept saying I “was in their hands now and I could not escape.” These people beat me in the head and stomach. They threatened to ask me to dig a grave in a forest for myself if I refused to answer their questions. At that moment in Crimea, many pro-Ukrainian activists and Crimean Tatars disappeared this way. They brought me to a place, and I soon realized it was my apartment since I had a small dog that came to me and started licking my hand.

The FSB RF (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) officers searched my apartment and stole all cameras, gadgets, and valuable things from my apartment.

They later brought me to an FSB building in Simferopol for an interrogation. For ten days, they beat me, hit me on my head and in my stomach with them, put a bag over my head, and choked me. The FSB demanded that I sign an admission of guilt that I was a terrorist, something I was not guilty of. They stripped me naked, put me onto the floor, took a police stick, touched my genitals, and threatened: “We are going to rape you now.” Apart from that, they electrocuted my genitals constantly. They threatened to do the same to my mother. “Nobody will save you. No one wants you. Who will be worried about you? You will disappear from world radars, and they will all forget you,” they said.

Indeed, I felt the utmost pain during these periods of torture. Your destiny and life were entirely in their hands. When I was alone at the detention centre in Moscow, I reflected on how to move forward with this. Finally, I decided to go to Court and speak the truth.

I can describe many more details: how these torturers treat us, the Ukrainian people, and how they press. Indeed, I could tell endlessly about it. However, I am free now and am grateful to you, Ukrainian nation!

Written by Rethinking Refugees