You're reading: Court sentences ailing ex-president of university to 5 years for bribe

Case is latest one to raise questions of rights abuses.

Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko may be the highest-ranking former official jailed while awaiting trial, but he is hardly the only Ukrainian feeling the sting of the nation’s notoriously inhumane judicial system.

Anatoliy Temchenko, the 68-year-old former president of Kryvy Rih Technical University, spent 19 months behind bars awaiting trial before his conviction on bribery charges this month. He is also reportedly suffering life-threatening health problems.

On May 23, Temchenko was brought to the court room in critical condition, suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. According to Andriy Didenko, coordinator of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Temchenko’s blood pressure reached dangerous levels on the day of his trial. He was given an injection and his condition stabilized.


The court ignored some evidence and didn’t reveal documents which served as grounds for conviction. I think the verdict is too tough as for a person whose guilt could not be completely proved.

– Oleh Amelchyshyn, Temchenko’s lawyer

The court found him guilty of receiving an Hr 10,500 ($1,312) bribe and sentenced him to five years and two months in prison. Temchenko was arrested in 2009 and charged with receiving a bribe from a construction company that was contracted to do some repair work on campus.

Temchenko’s lawyers say he is innocent and will appeal.

“The court ignored some evidence and didn’t reveal documents which served as grounds for conviction,” Temchenko’s lawyer Oleh Amelchyshyn said. “I think the verdict is too tough as for a person whose guilt could not be completely proved.”

Officials with the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast’s prosecutors’ office defended the verdict and the sentence. “This is a totally adequate sentence for this type of crime,” Svitlana Chorna, an assistant to the regional prosecutor said.

Temchenko was removed from his post after the charges surfaced and replaced by his deputy, Mykola Stupnyk, then by Yury Vilkul, a member of the pro-presidential Party of Regions, an appointment that raises questions for political interference. Now Stupnyk is back as acting president after Vilkul’s election as mayor of Kryvy Rih.

Amelchyshyn said Temechenko may not live to serve his sentence. Temchenko’s wife, Valentyna, described his pre-trial jail conditions as inhumane.

“He could spend whole days being interrogated. He was kept in a cold room without a chair even,” she told the Kharkiv Human Rights Group. Moreover, Temchenko didn’t get proper food or medical treatment, his supporters say. According to Valentyna Temchenko, he was hospitalized several times where he spent up to a week chained to the bed.

On March 17, the European Court of Human Rights demanded that Temchenko “receive urgent hospitalization in a special hospital with adequate medical care.”

Valeria Lutkovska, a government representative on these matters, said that Temchenko refused hospitalization in Kryvy Rih and Dnipropetrovsk. However, according Amelchyshyn, Temchenko didn’t trust local doctors.

While Temchenko’s sentence may be severe, his case is not unique.

People who are kept in detention, no matter who they are – politicians or ordinary citizens. These are people whose guilt haven’t been proven, yet they are already suffering, already risking with their health and basically serving their terms.

Aigul Mukanova, a lawyer representing Temchenko in the European Court of Human Rights.

The nation’s ombudsman has found that detention cells are crowded and unsanitary, conditions that spread diseases, and that detainees do not get proper medical care.

Eduard Bahirov, who heads the Interior Ministry’s public advisory council, said that all inmates are entitled to decent medical care. “No matter what kind of crime committed, if they have health issues they should get medical care,” Bahirov said.

But lack of money for prisons as well as the inability of advocates to prove claims of medical need hinder inmate care.

Aigul Mukanova, a lawyer representing Temchenko in the European Court of Human Rights, said Ukraine abuses pre-trial detention.

“People who are kept in detention, no matter who they are – politicians or ordinary citizens,” Mukanova said. “These are people whose guilt haven’t been proven, yet they are already suffering, already risking with their health and basically serving their terms.”

In May, Lutsenko was taken from his detention cell to a hospital emergency room with digestive problems, suffered as a consequence of a hunger strike. In late May, he ended the hunger strike. In 2001, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said her ulcer worsened during her months-long stay in jail.

Boris Kolesnikov, Ukraine’s current deputy prime minister, has also complained about inhumane treatment and political persecution experienced in 2005 when he was jailed for months on charges that were later dropped.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olesia Oleshko can be reached at [email protected]