Earlier on Friday, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic said that SBU was responsible for hundreds of illegal detentions and torture and that Kiev’s disregard for human rights had become systemic and needs to urgently addressed. He specified that the SBU has been detaining and torturing suspected opponents of the Kiev regime, those who sympathize with the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) in Ukraine’s southeast.
"We committed no torture there. Security Service of Ukraine adheres to the norms of the Ukrainian legislation and all the international conventions and treaties on human rights. I think that during the today's meeting between SBU head Basil Gritsak and Simonovic all the points that have been mentioned in the report will be addressed, and after that we could comment in more detail," Gitlyanskaya told RIA Novosti.
A delegation of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) visited Ukraine in May to inspect the country’s detention sites.
After independence referendums held in May 2014, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR) were established.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, however sporadic shelling has continued in Ukraine despite the deal.
