Chief of notorious Donetsk torture prison reportedly nabbed in Kyiv - journalist

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Denis Kulikovsky, head of the temporarily occupied Donetsk-based Izolyatsia prison, notorious for widespread torture of inmates held incommunicado, was detained in Kyiv.

That’s according to a Facebook post by a former prisoner of the said facility, Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseev, Ukrinform reports.

"The main war criminal of the Izolyatsia, Denis Kulikovsky, aka Palych, was detained in Kyiv. Now I can say that I’ve lived my life not in vain," Aseev wrote.

Ukrinform has inquired with the Security Service of Ukraine to confirm the report.

According to media reports, Kulikovsky, 36, has a family with a child, while most of his relatives live in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine.

According to Kulikovsky's ex-wife, they have not spoken for the past six months, and she is reportedly unaware of his whereabouts. She claims Kulikovsky in 2019 fled the so-called "DPR", allegedly to Russia.

Kulikovsky had been living in Kurakhove when in 2014 he joined the Russian occupation forces. Prior to that, he had worked in a pre-trial detention center or colony.

Read also: Bellingcat identifies Russians involved in torture in Izolyatsia prison

Approximately in 2015-2018, "Palych" managed the Izolyatsia facility in Donetsk, located at a site of what’s once been an art platform, which the militants converted into an actual concentration camp. Many former prisoners refer to Kulikovsky as the prison's chief executioner. He would subject inmates to torture and sometimes personally took part in torturing those accused of activities against the so-called "DPR."

According to his victims, they were beaten, cut, strangled, waterboarded, electrocuted, and raped.

Read also: OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media welcomes release of Aseev and Halaziuk

In addition, Kulikovsky practiced such methods of psychological influence as staged executions and “burying inmates alive.”

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