Investigators of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kherson region have announced suspicion against the former head of the social-psychological service unit of the department of socio-educational psychological work of Northern Correctional Colony No. 90, Oleksandr Kovalchuk.
This is stated in the suspicion issued by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to law enforcement, in May 2022 Kovalchuk assumed the position of senior duty officer of the duty service of the organizational-analytical department of the occupying Administration of the Penitentiary Service in Kherson region.
In the period from October 20 to November 2, 2022, Kovalchuk ordered the transfer of more than 1,500 convicted persons who were held in Northern Correctional Colony No. 90 in Kherson to Holoprystanska Correctional Colony No. 7. For this, from annexed Crimea “special vehicles” were sent.
Later some convicts were transferred without their consent to prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation, and some were taken to the recreation base “Korall” in the settlement Shchaslyvtseve in the TOT of Kherson region. The whereabouts of other convicts are currently unknown to the investigation.
In addition, while the convicts were at the recreation base “Korall” Kovalchuk used them for construction and repair works on facilities that belonged to the occupying Administration of the Penitentiary Service in Henichesk; in particular, the prisoners built a pre-trial detention center in the village of Chongar.
At the same time, prisoners who refused to go to forced labor were beaten, tortured, deprived of food and water, and held in unsanitary conditions. For this purpose, special cells were set up in the basement of the recreation base.
For this, Oleksandr Kovalchuk is suspected under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – namely of cruel treatment of the civilian population and of other violations of the laws and customs of war. The investigation continues.