An international survey shows that the body of a Ukrainian journalist was imprisoned and returned home without her eyes or brain.
Viktoria Roshchyna’s body was deported to Kiev in February after vanishing in an unofficial detention center in Rostov, Russia in August 2023.
According to Mail Online, her body was handed over to a “unidentified male” as part of her exchange with Russia until DNA tests revealed that she belonged to a missing reporter.
Forensic experts reportedly found the body had been tortured and dismembered. Her eyes, brain and part of her throat were removed.
Her head was shaved, her neck was bruised, and the sticker on her shin was her last name. Her foot was also burned, according to officials familiar with the ongoing investigation by the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.
Medical examiners later discovered that Roshchyna’s ribs were broken, with possible traces of electric shock. Ukrainian authorities only revealed that her body had been repatriated on April 24.
DNA tests confirmed that the body belonged to the 27-year-old journalist, who was detained in a brutal Russian prison system after reporting that the country was detained in August 2023 while operating a network of unofficial detention centers.
Roshchyna was the first Ukrainian journalist to be imprisoned by Russia and was reported to have died on October 2.
The young journalist spent most of his time in the Taganrog Sizo-2 prison in Rostov, also known as the Guantanamo in Russia – in the U.S. military prison – Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Investigations into her death show that under international law, journalists were detained while in Russia during their imprisonment, a serious violation of human rights.
According to the report, after initially held in the cities of Enerhodar and Melitopol, Roshchyna was transferred to the Taganrog detention centre run by the Russian Federation security department, and was in a critical state.
But she reportedly told a roommate that she turned down a deal offered by a waiter who shipped her because “she always sticks to her principles.”
On October 10, Roshchyna’s father received a letter from Russia proclaiming her death, although it failed to clarify the circumstances of her death.
