"It's hard to sit when they beat a club"

Oleg Sentsov in court - about detention and torture

In the North Caucasus District Military Court, in the process on the preparation of terrorist attacks in the Crimea and the creation of the cells of the Right Sector, the defendants-Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov and Anarchist Alexander Kolchenko, on Thursday on Thursday. Sentsov refused to answer questions and made a speech, Kolchenko agreed, but again pleaded guilty only in the arson of the door of the office of the Russian community of Crimea and the United Russia party in Simferopol.

“I do not consider the court legitimate. I am a citizen of Ukraine, who was illegally seized by employees of your special services,” said the judge Sergei Mikhaylyuk Sentsov. “There was a lot of untruth here, so I decided to speak. But in the future, I am not going to participate in this court and answer questions.

I consider myself an activist of the Maidan, and this is the main act that I have done in my life. But this does not mean that I am a radical. We opposed our President-criminal. After your country began the occupation of Crimea, I returned there and continued volunteer activities, had nothing to do with the “right sector”. I helped reporters, including foreign ones. We supported the military units blocked by your special forces, and when it became clear that the Ukrainian military could not remain in the Crimea, I, having experience, was engaged in the evacuation of their and their families. This is a huge job. He was engaged in the search for missing and stolen pro -Ukrainian activists in the Crimea. Some we managed to save, some were not found, and they are most likely not alive.

I tried to help everyone who was ready to play for Ukraine. Of the defendants in the case, I know only Sasha Kolchenko, all of his name was “Tundra”, he knows all Simferopol so. And I know Gennady Afanasyev. My testimony will not change anything, you yourself understand what. "

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Oleg Sentsov's speech in court

Oleg Sentsov also spoke about the circumstances of the detention on May 10, 2014 and torture by which he was subjected to:

"On May 9, Sasha Kolchenko called and said that unknown people arrested Afanasyev. I took measures to search for it. And later Afanasyev called myself and invited the voice of the sentenced to death. I warned the journalists that the arrests of activists began and I was also looking for me too.

On May 10, I was detained near the entrance of my own house. I was thrown on the bus and with a bag on my head, in handcuffs I was brought to the SBU building, then the FSB. They put them in a chair and began to interrogate quite hard. They asked if I knew Chirniya and Afanasyev.

They began to beat me with arms, legs, special equipment. Standing, lying, sitting. It is difficult to sit on a chair when you are beaten with a club. I was strangled by a bag. I saw in the cinema, I did not understand how people break. This is a very terrible thing

They began to beat me with arms, legs, special equipment. Standing, lying, sitting. It is difficult to sit on a chair when you are beaten with a club. I was strangled by a bag. I saw in the cinema, I did not understand how people break. This is a very terrible thing. Four times I went through it. Threatened to rape with a club in a perverted form. It lasted three or four hours. When they were tired, they took me to search, and only there I found out that these are FSB officers. They thought of finding weapons there, some terrorists, but there was only my young child in whom the search was held. They did not find anything but money for the film, brought it back and began to interrogate further, but without torture. I sat on a chair, with a bag on my head and handcuffs.

At eight in the morning, investigator Purgin came and conducted an official interrogation. An hour later, I was put in a glass and put the phone in my pocket. I was able to take out my hand and dial the SMS journalist that the FSB detained me.

I received a proposal: "There is evidence for you, if you do not say that the leadership of the Maidan or Ukraine ordered the monuments to blow up, then we will" make "you as the organizer of the group and you will receive 20 years." They no longer beat, because the scandal began with my detention.

Three days later, we found weapons and grenade, film newspapers, posters. Because well, what a terrorist group without weapons, they were in surprising way. I have 500 films in the collection, I am a film director. But two films were seized - "Ordinary Fascism", "The Third Reich in color." These are BBC documentaries. All accusations are fiction of Ephesians. "

Also today, the second accused in the case, activist Alexander Kolchenko, who refused to answer the questions of the prosecutor and the court, answered the questions of the lawyer Svetlana Sidorkina :

Alexander Kolchenko in court, August 6, 2015

“I met Oleg in early February 2014, he brought me to Kyiv. After that, we saw each other only a few times and were practically unfamiliar. I saw him at meetings, but I didn’t hear any calls for illegal actions,” said Kolchenko, who said that I had never heard from Sentsov about the explosions of the monuments, and also never discussed a heap of Russian community with him. Crimea "and the" United Russia "party in Simferopol. Kolchenko admitted that he took part in the arson of the office of the Party of Regions (in the case of the Office of United Russia), because "he decided for himself that the old methods have exhausted themselves."

“I received a proposal to participate in arson, and I agreed. Afanasyev and I took the positions of observers, and Borkin and Chirniy remained at the office and took a fabric. No organization took responsibility for the arson, no requirements were presented. Ukraine and other countries made demands to release the Crimea, but the darkness could not influence the position of the Russian government,” said, ”he said. Kolchenko.

Answering the questions of the lawyer, Alexander Kolchenko also announced the torture that were applied to him during the detention:

"I was detained on May 16, at about 5-6 pm. And after the detention at the preliminary interrogation that the protocol was not entered, I was beaten in the face and the case. Later, when I testified, there was a lawyer for its appointment. I did not confirm these readings. The lawyer then misleads me with respect to the articles that I did not declare to me, because when I found out what measures were applied to what measures were applied to Oleg, I considered my pressure insignificant and unworthy to declare it. "