27 May 2019 16:32

Convicts attempt to seize penitentiary in Odesa on crime bosses' instructions - Ukrainian National Police

KYIV. May 27 (Interfax) - Convicts at the Southern Correctional Colony No. 51 in Odesa attempted to seize an administrative building under instructions from crime bosses, Ukrainian National Police First Deputy Chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said.

"Convicts attempted to seize an administrative building and committed arson at a correctional facility in Odesa today on the instructions of criminal bosses," Abroskin wrote on Facebook.

The attempt was aimed at causing disarray, but, owing to actions by State Penitentiary Service and National Police officials, it failed, he said.

It was reported earlier that four employees of Correctional Colony No. 51 in Odesa had been tentatively injured and provided with medical aid following riots on Monday. The Odesa regional police department said no one had been killed in the incident.

Law enforcement agencies have brought the situation fully under control.

Information on "actions disrupting the work of a correctional institution," as the incident is qualified in the Ukrainian Criminal Code, has been filed with the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations.

Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova said quoting her representative in southern regions of Ukraine Oleksandr Ostapenko that five offenders had been removed from the penitentiary, and the medical workers and guards taken hostage had been freed.

It was determined tentatively that the riot had been prompted by searches of convicts, she said.