Suspects for murder of convict still working in Khmelnytsky remand prison

The Khmelnytsky remand prison employees, suspected of the murder of convict Andriy Danyliuk, have not been dismissed from office.

The Human Rights Information Centre learnt it from the prosecutor’s office of Khmelnytsky region and the Ukraine’s State Penitentiary Service department in Khmelnytsky region.

“Dismissal from office as a measure to ensure the criminal proceeding against the State Penitentiary Service employees was not applied, as any person has not been notified of suspicion yet,” spokesperson Vyacheslav Kobrin wrote in response to the request for information.

The prosecutor’s office refused to explain why they had chosen exactly this legal qualification of the criminal proceeding, referring to the secrecy of the investigation.

As reported, October 2015, the remand prison employees murdered convict Andriy Danyliuk. The Khmelnytsky prosecutor’s office informed that the murder had taken place while the convict was transferred to the place of service of sentence and opened the criminal proceedings under the article “intentional homicide in excess of justified defense or measures to apprehend the offender”. 

The wife of the killed convict believes it was a contract murder as he allegedly could prove the involvement of the penitentiary facility executives in drug traffic. A large number of bruises could be seen at the published photos of the murdered.

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska said in a commentary to the Human Rights Information Centre that she had already appealed to the Prosecutor General to investigate the case.