Police officer from occupied town of Hornostaivka has been sentenced to 13 years for torturing married couple
Former Ukrainian law enforcement officer Volodymyr Plyukhin, who defected to the Russian side following the occupation of the Kherson region and became the ‘head of criminal investigations’ for the occupying police in Hornostaivka, has been sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for torturing civilians.
According to Censor.NET, the relevant verdict was handed down by the Novovorontsov District Court in the Kherson region. The court found Plyukhin guilty of violating the laws and customs of war, according to the project The Book of the Executioners of the Ukrainian People.
According to the case file, on 2 June 2023, the convicted man, together with eight armed Russian soldiers, forced their way into the couple’s home in occupied Hornostaivka. Without any explanation, the man of the house was pinned against a post, beaten with fists and a knee, insulted and accused of collaborating with the Ukrainian Defence Forces.
Whilst the man was being beaten, Russian soldiers searched the house and checked his wife’s mobile phone and laptop. They were subsequently taken by force to the seized police station, where, during their interrogation, they were threatened with death, with reference to a local resident whom the occupiers had previously tortured to death.
The man and woman were questioned separately for several hours. Before releasing him, Plyukhin threatened the victim, saying that if he told the Security Service of Ukraine about what had happened, they would ‘put him away’ for good, and described the beating as merely a ‘warm-up’.
The court classified these acts as torture and cruel treatment of the civilian population – a gross violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 28(2) and Article 438(1) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
For this offence, the court sentenced Plyukhina to 10 years’ imprisonment. However, taking into account his previous conviction for collaboration – for which he was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in 2023 – the final sentence, following the partial consolidation of the sentences, was 13 years’ imprisonment.
As the case was heard in absentia, the period of imprisonment will be calculated from the date of the convicted person’s actual arrest. Until then, he will remain under arrest in absentia.
