Man spent more than seven days in TCR basement in Lviv region: Lubinets examines whether his stay there was lawful. PHOTO
For more than a week, a man was at Department No. 1 of the Stryi District Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR and SS) in Zhydachiv, but was not allowed to tell his relatives or lawyer where he was. The TCR denied that he spent the entire time in the basement.
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote about this on social media, Censor.NET reports.
What the ombudsman found
Lubinets stressed that mobilization gives the state lawful powers but does not suspend the law. Even during wartime, a person retains the right to liberty, security of person, and legal protection.
He immediately sent representatives of the Ombudsman’s Office to check the information. Representatives of the Military Law Enforcement Service also joined a monitoring visit on September 23.
- According to the logbook and documents, a police officer brought the man to the TCR at 9:17 p.m. on September 16, and he left the premises at 6:15 p.m. on September 23 — nearly seven days later.
- The room is on the lower ground floor and is used as a shelter. It has four beds. TCR staff provided food; the kitchen and bathroom were in adequate condition, and the room had mechanical ventilation. Inspectors found that rain had caused dampness in the room. The man said he could not leave it on his own.
"The key question is: on what legal grounds was the man kept on TCR premises for nearly seven days? We need to thoroughly examine whether his right to liberty and security of person, his right to inform his relatives and obtain legal assistance were violated, and whether the relevant documents were properly completed," Lubinets stressed.
He said the issue extends beyond one person: it is necessary to establish whether TCR premises are, in some cases, becoming places of deprivation of liberty.
To conduct a full review, Lubinets sent requests to the Stryi District TCR and SS and the Stryi District Police Department of the National Police’s Main Directorate in Lviv region. He sought information about the legal grounds and circumstances of the man’s stay at the TCR, the paperwork, the protection of his rights, and the preservation of video recordings.
The Lviv Regional TCC’s account
The Lviv Regional TCR and SS gave its own account of the incident. According to the center, police conducting notification activities on September 16 found a man liable for military service who had no military registration document. With his consent, they took him to Department No. 1 of the Stryi District TCR and SS to update his records.
The following day, he was offered an examination by a Military Medical Commission, which he refused. The refusal was documented, administrative paperwork was drawn up, and he was served with a summons for a medical examination on September 28. The center said he then left the unit and returned home.
The center also disputed reports that the man had confirmed status as a father raising a 14-year-old child alone. It said he had not provided documents entitling him to a deferment on those grounds and that, according to the TCR, parents living separately do not automatically qualify for a deferment.
The TCR separately said the man filmed the basement during an air raid alert while in the shelter, and that the room is not used to accommodate people liable for military service. According to the center, his phone was not confiscated, he was subjected to no physical or psychological pressure, and the claim that he was in the shelter because of a purported "birthday celebration for the commander" was untrue.
