KIEV, Ukraine -- Protesters praised President Viktor Yanukovych's signing into law Friday an amnesty for protesters and a repeal of anti-protest laws but said the move does not change their ultimate goal - Yanukovych's ouster.

"People came out onto the streets not for the amnesty, and not out of desire to riot," said Viktor Andrusiv, a protestor in Kiev. "They have demands – the resignation of the Yanukovych, government and the punishing those who are guilty (of violence against the protestors). All this still needs to be negotiated."

The new law offers protesters amnesty if they leave the government buildings they have been occupying and stop filling the streets with demonstrations. Protesters currently hold one city hall in Kiev and 10 governor's offices, mostly in the western regions of Ukraine. They also occupy several non-government buildings in the central Kiev.

Some political leaders opposed to Yanukovych call the deal "the hostages law," as did protesters.

"The amnesty is good for the families of detained protesters but for everyone else it's just a step in the direction of repression," said Olexander Kravchenko, a protester from Kiev. "If people vacate the buildings, the arrests will start. I will be arrested, too, for an insulting banner about prime minister I made for the protest."

Since the protests began in late November, hundreds of thousands have taken to the street to demonstrate against Yanukovych's drift away from ties with Europe and toward closer relations with Russia.

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Ukraine, Europe's second-largest country, declared independence in the 1990s from Russia's previous incarnation, the Communist Soviet Union. Protesters want to align the country with democratic nations in Europe, and not a Russia government under authoritarian President Vladimir Putin.

Yanukovych aggravated the forces for stronger ties to Europe with his decision to reject a long-planned political and economic treaty with the European Union and instead accept a bailout and gas delivery package from Russia.

The protests that began in November had remained largely peaceful but turned violent last week as protesters clashed with police, leading to at least four deaths, according to police, although others say the toll is higher. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested as well.

Even so, the protesters won the resignation of the Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, earlier this week as well as the repeal of a law restricting protests. But protesters insist they are not done. They say they want not only the resignation of the president, new elections and political reforms.

"The amnesty law shows that government doesn't understand what is going on and sees the protest as a small group of people who are upset," says Andrusiv. "But people's positions have not changed – they will make a stand to the end."

Meanwhile, police on Friday opened an investigation into the kidnapping of an opposition activist, who said he was held captive for more than a week and tortured in the latest in a string of mysterious attacks on anti-government protesters in the two-month-long political crisis.

Dmytro Bulatov, 35, a member of Automaidan, a group of car owners that has taken part in the protests against Yanukovych, vanished Jan. 22. Bulatov was discovered outside Kiev on Thursday.

He said his kidnappers beat him severely, drove nails into his hands, sliced off a piece of ear and cut his face. He said he was kept in the dark all the time and could not identify the kidnappers. After more than a week of beatings, they eventually dumped him in a forest.

"They crucified me, they nailed down my hands. They cut off my ear, they cut my face. There isn't a spot on my body that hasn't been beaten," Bulatov said on Channel 5 television. "Thank God, I am alive."

Bulatov's face and clothes were covered in clotted blood, his hands were swollen and bore the marks of nails. Opposition leader Petro Poroshenko rushed to the hospital where Bulatov was taken Thursday night.

"Dmytro asked to pass his greetings to everyone and to say that he has not been broken and will not be broken," a grim-looking Poroshenko told Channel 5. "That he is full of energy and despite the fact that his body has been beaten, Dmytro's spirit is strong."

Oleksiy Hrytsenko, Bulatov's friend and fellow activist, said Automaidan members had come under tremendous pressure during the protests with their cars burnt and activists detained, harassed and threatened.

Bulatov disappeared one day after Igor Lutsenko, another prominent opposition activist who had also gone missing, was discovered after being taken to the woods and beaten severely by unknown attackers.Lutsenko was kidnapped from a hospital, where he had brought a fellow protester, Yuri Verbitsky, to be treated for an eye injury. Verbitsky was also beaten severely and was later discovered dead.

The disappearances prompted an outcry from protesters, who accused the government of intimidating the opposition.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement saying she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture and cruel treatment" of Bulatov. She also condemned the death of Verbitsky.

"These are but two cases of the continuous deliberate targeting of organizers and participants of peaceful protests," Ashton said. "All such acts are unacceptable and must immediately be stopped."