Torture with Electricity and 11 Years of Strict Regime: How Russians Torture and Why They ‘Sentenced’ Serhii Arefiev from Kherson

Kherson is the only regional center the Russians captured after February 24, 2022. Despite the city being under occupation from the first days of the full-scale invasion, its residents actively protested against the invaders. People were not deterred even when the Russians pointed weapons at them and abducted them right during the protests. Among those abducted was Serhii Arefiev, a mobile communications company employee.

This happened on March 23, 2022. Arefiev and his friend went to another protest. Suddenly, a civilian car blocked their way, and Russian soldiers jumped out of it. They grabbed Serhii and his friend, put bags over their heads, and took them to the police station on Lutheranska Street.

In the seized building, Arefiev’s friend was beaten and subjected to the ‘good and evil policeman’ method. Both men were also illegally interrogated about the protesters and those allegedly paying them, as the Russians didn’t believe in the sincerity of the pro-Ukrainian stance of Kherson residents. That same day, the Russians released Serhii’s friend, and Arefiev was transferred to the temporary detention center No. 1 on Teploenergetikiv Street, where he was held for five days.

Got Accustomed to the Stun Gun So Much that It No Longer Hurt

Later, the occupiers transported Arefiev to Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol. A civilian who was there and later returned told Serhii’s wife, Polina, that the prisoners were poorly fed and had to sleep two to a bed. The Russians also forbade the Ukrainians to do physical exercises, claiming that it was a way for the prisoners to prepare for an escape. If someone violated the ban, they were sent to solitary confinement. During the day, the Russians prohibited sitting on the bed. During the ‘acceptance’ of prisoners, they were brutally beaten.

— My husband had a hemorrhage in his eye and a bruise covering half of his face. His jaw was injured, and he couldn’t eat properly for a week. They beat him with a stun gun. Serhii got so accustomed to these beatings that it no longer hurt him, — his wife Polina recalls.

Serhii Arefiev holds his son in his arms

While her husband was being held in Simferopol and she was in evacuation, in May 2022, the occupiers attempted to break into their apartment in Kherson. When they failed, one of them sent Polina an audio recording in which Serhii asked her to give his work laptop to the Russians. As soon as she did so, her husband called her from an unknown number. They talked briefly before one of the invaders, Dmytro Chornyi, took over the call. He urged Polina and her son to return to Kherson and not to contact Ukrainian law enforcement. He also promised that Serhii would be released soon.

A month later, she spoke to her husband again. He informed her he would be in Kherson in two weeks. However, that didn’t happen; Serhii remained in Russian captivity, and Chornyi stopped contacting her. After that, Polina filed a statement with the prosecutor’s office again. She also appealed to the occupation authorities, who confirmed that Arefiev was still held in Detention Center No. 1 in Simferopol.

In March 2023, the woman received a call from Andrii Chertoliasov, who introduced himself as a lawyer from Simferopol appointed by the Russians to represent Serhii. He had been practicing on the peninsula even before the occupation. In January 2014, the Crimean Bar Association issued him a license. He claimed that the occupiers had initiated an investigation against Arefiev under the charge of ‘espionage.’ However, the lawyer became increasingly reluctant to communicate with her. Polina found another lawyer who revealed that the Russians had classified Serhii’s case.

At that time, Polina began corresponding with her husband. However, later, the Russians restricted access to the site for the holders of Ukrainian SIM cards. In March 2023, Serhii received his first package from his family.

— They checked them and cut everything. I would receive sliced apples and sausage, everything mixed up, — Polina recounts her husband’s words.

11 Years of Imprisonment for ‘Espionage’: Who Tried Serhii Arefiev

At the end of March 2023, the Russians transferred Serhii to Detention Center No. 2 in Simferopol. The prisoners did not see daylight there because the windows were painted over. The Russians also forced Ukrainians to walk in a ‘swallow’ pose, with their arms raised behind their backs. Serhii was held along with civilians from Crimea and the Kherson region, including Ivan Kozlov, a Kherson resident, who had been illegally convicted of supposed ‘espionage.’

In May 2023, Arefiev was placed in a psychiatric hospital for two months. As his lawyer explained, to provide him with better conditions than those in the pre-trial detention center.

In November of the same year, the occupation Kherson Regional Court, located in Henichesk, illegally sentenced Serhii to 11.5 years in a strict regime colony. In May 2024, following an appeal, his sentence was reduced by six months. The sham verdict was delivered by Airat Halliamov, Svitlana Kuraieva, and Viktor Mozhelianskyi.

Serhii Arefiev’s case was considered by the same panel of ‘judges’ that tried Ivan Kozlov. From left to right: Svitlana Kuraieva, Viktor Mozhelianskyi, Airat Halliamov

Until September 2023, Halliamov worked in Kazan while Kuraieva was at the Dimitrovgrad City Court in the Ulyanovsk Region of the Russian Federation. Mozhelianskyi, before the occupation of Crimea, was a judge at the Kyiv District Court in Simferopol. He betrayed his oath and went to the Russian Federation’s side in 2014. Since then, he has illegally judged Euromaidan activist Oleksandr Kosthenko, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Ilmi Umerov, and Ukrainian sailors captured by the Russians in the Kerch Strait in 2018. In 2015, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office notified Mozhelianskyi of suspicion of treason. In June 2021, he was summoned to receive a notice of suspicion for violating the laws and customs of war. Also, Halliamov, Kuraieva, and Mozhelianskyi sentenced Kherson resident Ivan Kozlov to 11 years in prison, allegedly for espionage.

The ‘prosecutor’ during the so-called trial against Serhii Arefiev was Volodymyr Komiediev. Before the occupation of Crimea, he worked at the Bilohirsk District Prosecutor’s Office on the peninsula; in March 2014, he pledged allegiance to the occupiers. In 2016, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine notified Komiediev of suspicion of treason. In 2017, he was summoned for interrogation.

Krasnodar and Saratov: Where the Russians Transferred Serhii Arefiev

When Arefiev was unlawfully convicted, he was likely taken to Detention Center No. 1 in Krasnodar. In June, he was transferred to Correctional Colony No. 2 in the same city.

On the day the man was taken from Detention Center No. 2 in Simferopol, the FSB website published news about the ‘trial’ of five ‘Ukrainian spies,’ including Arefiev. In mid-July, Serhii informed his lawyer that he was at Penal Colony No. 10 in Saratov. He is housed in a barrack with Ukrainians and Russians and works as a tailor. Serhii does not provide details about the conditions of his detention, as he fears that the prison officials might forbid him from sending letters.

Penal Colony No. 10 in Saratov is a male-strict regime correctional facility

Currently, Polina Arefieva is appealing to Ukrainian and international bodies and organizations to facilitate the speedy release of her husband. In particular, she is cooperating with the ICRC. However, the Russians ignore its inquiries and do not confirm that they are holding Serhii in captivity.

This article has been prepared with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Maryna Kulinich, journalist at MIHR