KIEV, Ukraine — The bloody images of Ukrainian opposition supporter Dmytro Bulatov, who says he was abducted and tortured for more than a week, have fueled fears among anti-government activists that extrajudicial squads are being deployed to intimidate the protest movement.
Bulatov, who was in charge of a vocal protest group before he disappeared Jan. 22, said his unidentified kidnappers beat him, sliced off part of his ear and nailed him to a door during his time in captivity.
“There isn’t a spot on my body that hasn’t been beaten. My face has been cut. They promised to poke my eye out. They cut off my ear,” Bulatov, 35, said Friday in a short video from his hospital ward. “They crucified me by nailing me to a door with something and beat me strongly all the while.”
The Interior Ministry said it was investigating Bulatov’s story, but it also accused him of failing to cooperate.
Meanwhile, President Viktor Yanukovych signed into law a bill offering to grant amnesty to protesters, but only after they vacate scores of government buildings they have seized across the country.
