Torture Case: Recusal Sought Against Investigator Viktoriya Kilafli and Prosecutor Oleksandr Ivanov
After the Bolhrad District Court of Odesa Region quashed, on 31 July 2026, the decision to close criminal proceedings No. 12018160150002589 concerning the group torture of Oleh Istomin, the victim and his representative, advocate Dmytro Yagunov, filed applications for the recusal of the officials whose own procedural conduct had driven the case to an unlawful closure.
The applications concern investigator Viktoriya Kilafli of the Investigative Division of the Bolhrad Police Department (GUNP in Odesa Region), who on 19 January 2022 issued the decision to close the proceedings citing a provision of law that does not exist, and who, on 20 July 2026 — while the victim’s complaint was already before the court — issued her own decision “correcting a clerical error” to retroactively alter the date of that closure decision. They also concern prosecutor Oleksandr Ivanov of the Bolhrad District Prosecutor’s Office, who at the court hearings of 17, 24 and 30 July 2026 consistently maintained that the investigator’s decision was lawful — a decision the court subsequently found unlawful and unfounded.
The application of 6 August 2026 is grounded in the fact that the conduct of Kilafli and Ivanov throughout 2021–2026 led to the destruction of the criminal proceedings in favour of the persons the victim has consistently named as his torturers, and that both officials, at the court hearing, vigorously defended the lawfulness of that destruction. The victim’s representative emphasises that an investigation continued by the very same persons who themselves brought the previous proceedings to an unlawful closure cannot be regarded as independent within the meaning of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (Bouyid v. Belgium [GC]; Mustafa Tunç and Fecire Tunç v. Turkey [GC]; Ramsahai and Others v. the Netherlands [GC]).
The second application, filed on 10 August 2026, records new circumstances: as of the ninth day after the court’s ruling ordering the resumption of the investigation, not a single investigative step had been taken in the proceedings, while the written instructions of prosecutors Tsoiev D.K. (of 17.12.2020) and Rusanzhyk V.P. (of 19.01.2022) remain unexecuted for more than five and more than four years respectively.
The victim’s representative asks that investigator Kilafli V.V. and prosecutor Ivanov O.K. be recused from any further participation in the proceedings, and that the resumed investigation be entrusted to officials who have had no prior connection to this case.
