You're reading: Supporters say father, son wrongly convicted of murder

Some football fans in and out of Ukraine are calling for the release of imprisoned father and son, Dmytro and Serhiy Pavlychenko, who were convicted in the 2011 murder of a Kyiv judge who evicted the pair from their apartment.

The movement to free the pair is led by
hard-core fans of Dynamo Kyiv’s football team who believe the Pavlychenkos are innocent.
Many are friends of one of the convicted murderers, 19-year-old Serhiy Pavlychenko, also a big football fan. The family’s supporters are demanding a
new investigation.

“This rally symbolizes the unity of
Ukrainians against injustice…we’re trying to draw attention to the judicial and
law enforcement system … it’s incompatible to speak about a 21st century Europe
and a system that beats confessions out of people,” said Andriy Korinivsky, 29,
one of the leaders of the movement.

Banners that read, “Freedom to the
Pavlychenkos,” are being shown at football games as far away as Chelyabinsk,
St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, to Silkeborg in Denmark, Kladno in the
Czech Republic and in Austria’s Vienna.

People are being urged to write letters
to European members of parliament and marches have been organized. A multilingual
website, theyarenotkillers.com, and social media are being used for outreach
and public awareness.

In this undated photo, football fans in Prague, the Czech Republic hang a banner that reads, “THEY ARE NOT KILLERS,” in reference to Serhiy and Dmytro Pavlychenko, who supporters say were wrongfully convicted for the murder of a Kyiv judge in 2011.

The brain center for the movement are
the hard-core fans of Dynamo Kyiv, known more for their fanatical football team
support, than for other  causes.

On Nov. 25, senior fan club members of
Dynamo Kyiv organized a mass rally at Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park attended by
hundreds of fans, students and concerned citizens from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, the Czech Republic
and Poland to call for the release of Serhiy and Dmytro. Hundreds more joined
the march to Kyiv’s Lukyanivska pre-trial detention center where Serhiy and
Dmytro are incarcerated.

“I’m here today because this (being
wrongfully convicted and put in prison) could happen to anyone,” said Sergei Mitrofonov
of Moscow at the Nov. 25 rally, and football fan of CSKA Moskva.

A supporter came to a rally at Park Shevchenko on Nov. 25 bearing a t-shirt that calls for the release of Serhiy and Dmytro Pavlychenko who were convicted and given lengthy prison sentences for the 2011 murder of a Kyiv judge.

On Oct. 2, a Kyiv court found the father
and son guilty of last year’s murder of a 42-year old judge, Serhiy Zubkov, and
sentenced Dmytro the father, to life in prison, and the son, Serhiy to 13
years.

An appeals court is scheduled to start hearing
the case on Dec. 14.

The victim, Zubkov, died of knife stab
and gunshot wounds inside the building where he lived on March 21, 2011.  Witnesses said that two people had entered the
building; one sat in a wheelchair.

The police immediately focused their
investigation on the Pavlychenkos and arrested them three days after the
killing.

Dmytro Pavlychenko (L), 47, and Serhiy Pavlychenko, 19, are seen in a Kyiv court earlier this year while under trial for the murder of a Kyiv judge.

As a judge, Zubkov had presided over
many property development disputes involving powerful companies and residents.
He made several rulings in the past three years in favor of the public interest,
including over a property on Honchara Street just blocks from Saint Sophia
Square on which the
Kyiv Post reported
.

Zubkov also had approved a notice to
evict the Pavlychenkos from their centrally located apartment in favor of a
Dutch-registered property developer after a 
drawn-out dispute.

Dmytor Pavylychenko had publicly fought
the developer in Kyiv courts and had filed complaints against the police and
Zubkov over the long-running dispute. Police said revenge was Serhiy’s motive
for killing the judge.

“This was an unprecedented event that
really scared judges all over the country,” said Ihor Lutsenko, an urban
activist familiar with Zubkov’s rulings on property disputes. “It showed what
would happen if someone tries to judge according to law.”

However, Lutsenko doubts the
Pavlychenkos are guilty: “The main task for police is to punish the murders.
What was done is something completely opposite… from the motive side, I can
recall at least two powerful corporations whose profits were negatively
influenced by Zubkov’s decision…the Pavlychenkos look more like victims of
system.”

Lutsenko also said that police should examine property developers,
some of whom deploy violence in disputes, he claimed.

Lutsenko also alleged that some key witnesses of Zubkov’s murder “ complained
that they are under pressure from authorities, they are just forced to support
‘official’ version that it was the Pavlycnekos who killed.”

When Interior Ministry spokesperson Volodymyr Polishchuk was asked
about the movement to free the Pavlychenkos, he told the Kyiv Post to contact the
prosecutor’s office that “said the investigation (into the murder of Zubkov)
was unbiased and objectively conducted.”

Advocates for the Pavlychenkos, including
Volodymyr Shyroshenko, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the police who is
currently a lawyer and friend of 20 years of Serhiy Pavylchenko, said it is
unlikely that a person who abided by the law and went public with his property
dispute case would recruit his son to help him kill the judge.

However, police said they found a piece
of paper containing Zubkov’s home address at the father’s residence and bullets
of the type used to kill the judge in his car. Moreover, investigators said the
father’s  fingerprints were at the crime
scene.

The murder weapons were never found.

Supporters for the Pavlychenkos claim
that evidence was planted and the search of the car was conducted unlawfully.
Advocates furthermore point out that none of the six witnesses in the case,
including an eyewitness who came face-to-face with one of Zubkov’s assailants, could
initially identify the killers.

Moreover, witnesses said the killers
were aged between 25 and 30, whereas the father is nearly 50 and the son was 18
at the time.

“Unfortunately, the recent (Karavan
killer) Yaroslav Mazurok case, or relatively old (slain journalist Georgiy)
Gongadze case show that police is likely to ‘choose’ the murderer, not find the
murderer,” said Lutsenko.

Mazurok was the suspect of a triple murder
committed at a Kyiv shopping mall. He was found dead this month from an
apparent suicide, police say. Police convicted three police officers for
killing Gongadze in 2000. Many suspect, based on alleged secret recordings made
in former President Leonid Kuchma’s office, that Gongadze’s murder came from
Ukraine’s leadership at the time.

Serhiy Pavylchenko initially confessed
to the murder while in custody but later retracted his testimony in court. He said
his confession was made because of police brutality.

Taras Kuzmenko, a senior Dynamo Kyiv fan
club member, told the Kyiv Post that the Pavlychenkos were denied their lawyer
for the first week in custody, when the alleged confession took place. While in
pre-trial detention, the father wrote an open letter to the media alleging that
the police had promised not to convict his son or harass his family if he would
confess.

Kuzmenko added that the group will seek
to forge alliances with human rights groups in and outside Ukraine should the
Pavlychenkos lose in the appeals court. The Pavlychenkos’ lawyer, Tetyana
Shevchenko, said an appeals court will hear the case starting on Dec. 14.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].