While he was a minister, Halushchenko deliberately chose the worst cell in the remand prison for a NABU detective

While serving as head of the Ministry of Justice, Herman Halushchenko personally approved the choice of a detention cell with poor conditions for NABU detective Ruslan Magamedrasulov, who was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in July last year.

This was stated by a prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) at yesterday’s hearing of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) regarding the selection of a preventive measure for Halushchenko.

According to the prosecutor, Deputy Minister of Justice Yevhen Pikalov told Halushchenko that the SBU had asked him to place the detained head of the detectives’ unit in a “free cell with unpleasant cellmates” at the Lukianivka pre-trial detention center.

Later, Pikalov sent Halushchenko photos of the cell. Halushchenko replied with a “+” symbol to indicate approval.

Halushchenko has now been sent to a pre-trial detention center himself, with bail set at 200 million hryvnias.

It is also noteworthy that the Ministry of Justice—which oversees Ukraine’s prisons—under Halushchenko’s leadership actively told European countries about “European standards” in Ukrainian prisons, urging them to satisfy Kyiv’s requests for the extradition of Ukrainian citizens.

At the same time, according to SAPO materials that have been made public, Halushchenko personally approved using poor prison conditions as a means of pressure on suspects.