POLICE in Ukraine have opened an investigation into the kidnapping of an opposition activist who said he was held captive for more than a week and tortured.
Dmytro Bulatov, 35, a member of Automaidan, a group of car owners that has taken part in the protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, went missing on January 22.
He was discovered outside Kiev on Thursday night and said his kidnappers beat him badly, drove nails against his hands, sliced off a piece of an ear and cut his face.
The activist said: "They crucified me, they nailed down my hands. They cut off my ear, they cut my face. There isn't a spot on my body that hasn't been beaten."
EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture and cruel treatment" of Mr Bulatov.
Meanwhile, Mr Yanukovich has signed into law an amnesty for demonstrators detained during recent unrest and repealed anti-protest legislation despite being on sick leave.
The 63-year-old leader, who looks increasingly isolated in a tug-of-war between the West and Ukraine's former Soviet overlord Russia, suddenly withdrew from view on Thursday, complaining of a high temperature and acute respiratory ailment.
At least six people have been killed and hundreds more injured in two months of street battles between anti-government demonstrators and police, which have escalated sharply after the authorities toughened their response. The crisis forced Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to resign earlier this week and as yet there is no sign of a successor. Serhiy Arbuzov, Mr Azarov's first deputy and a close family friend of Mr Yanukovich, has stepped in as interim prime minister.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday: "We offer Ukraine's opposition the full support of President Obama and of the American people for their efforts. But if you get that reform agenda we would urge them to engage in that because further stand-off, or further violence that becomes uncontrollable, is not in anybody's interests."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article