CLOSED: Ukraine: Allegations of torture on Eduard Furman

Eduard Furman, who is married with one son, was arrested and allegedly tortured in police detention in April 2007 to force him to confess to a series of murders in Dnipropetrovsk and the capital Kyiv. He has been in detention ever since, awaiting trial.

Background information

Eduard Furman has been arrested and allegedly tortured in police detention in Ukraine to force him to confess to a series of murders in Dnipropetrovsk and in the capital, Kyiv. He is awaiting trial having confessed to the murders as a result of alleged further beating.

He was arrested at a friend's house in the city of Dnipropetrovsk on 11th April 2007 by troops from the Ministry of the Interior. He was then taken to the offices of the Ukrainian State Security Service where police investigators interrogated him about the murders. Eduard Furman reported that he was beaten and given electric shocks and almost suffocated. He was then taken to a police station in Brovary where he was interrogated for a further four hours, beaten and put in a cell with a criminal suspect who tried to persuade him to confess. On 14th April 2007 his detention was extended. He alleges that he confessed to the murders after being beaten again. He has been charged with murder and is being held in pre-trial detention in Odessa.

Despite his lawyer complaining to the Prosecutor General's office about his torture, no investigation has been opened into the allegations.

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Eduard Furman, who is married with one son, was arrested and allegedly tortured in police detention in April 2007 to force him to confess to a series of murders in Dnipropetrovsk and the capital Kyiv. He has been in detention ever since, awaiting trial.

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