You're reading: Lawyers band together over ‘lawlessness’ of Yanukovych administration

Anger and disgust over the lawlessness of President Viktor Yanukovych’s government continue to spread within the legal community. 

What started as a series of online discussions about the anti-government EuroMaidan demonstrations, and the police violence against them, has grown into a movement for comprehensive legal reform and criminal accountability through an online petition sponsored by some of the nation’s leading lawyers.

In less than a week the document has gained about 250 signatures from within the legal community. 

“Address
of Ukrainian legal specialists on the situation in the country” on the popular
online petitions site www.petitions247.com is the brainchild of Kyiv-based lawyer Mykola Orlov of the law firm OMP.
He told the Kyiv Post that he was inspired to write the address because “the legal
community has failed to adequately respond to the deteriorating situation” in
the country. 

It
was an act of professional conscience, in short.

The petition did not
just appear to Orlov in a dream on the night of Feb. 4. Rather, he and many
of his colleagues have been involved in a number of Facebook groups discussing the EuroMaidan movement and the implications of the violent state
actions taken against it. When Orlov and his colleagues decided that their
thoughts on the political crisis had coalesced, he spearheaded the writing and
posting of the petition. 

Orlov
explained that the petition contains three main messages:

The first is to “call
a spade a spade,” meaning that as the voice of the legal community in Ukraine,
the signatories of the petition are willing to admit the sad truth of the criminal
situation that has enveloped the country in recent years. 

The
second is to acknowledge that the legal and government systems “are on
the brink of collapse,” a state of affairs the country has not faced since
independence. 

Finally,
Orlov stated that the legal community is willing to initiate real changes to
the system that are essential if Ukraine is to continue as a properly functioning state. 

Ultimately,
the petition serves as a clarion call to the legal community to take proactive
measures to combat what Orlov sees as “the lawlessness that has been taking
place in Ukraine before our eyes over the past two-plus months.” The petition
makes it clear that Orlov and the signatories to the document are on the side
of EuroMaidan, since he says, “Thanks to the heroic and sacrificial work of
hundreds of journalists and civil society activists, the entire country
received unequivocal evidence of crimes committed en masse in all branches of
power in Ukraine.” 

However,
Orlov wants to emphasize that the petition is purely non-partisan, and is
worried about the legal implications of the crisis. 

To
date, roughly 250 lawyers and legal specialists have added their names to the
petition. 

The
majority of the signatories belong to Kyiv-based law firms, but lawyers from
Ukraine-related entities as far away as Canada and Qatar have joined the
petition drive. 

“I
found it on Facebook and I immediately felt that I had to sign,” said lawyer Alexander Subbotin, a criminal law specialist and one of the first
signatories. “I have cases for which no crime has actually been committed, and
I am willing to expose this.” 

The demands go beyond the events of the Nov. 30 violent police crackdown on EuroMaidan protestors. It is sweeping in its condemnation, from the highest
authorities to the entire court system, and Orlov does not equivocate about the
reasons for this dire state of affairs: “The entire state machinery has become
a money-making machine, which ceased to perform its primary function of serving
the people,” he said. 

Orlov
then shifts his rhetoric from alarmed observer to activist by declaring
that he and the undersigned are willing to collect evidence of malfeasance from
their own files, make legal assessments and protect victims of injustice. 

The
petition concludes by calling on the authorities at all levels “to stop the
lawlessness and initiate public dialog on the structural reform of public
authorities, including law enforcement bodies and the courts” and announcing
that the signatories to the petition will ensure that the authorities are held
accountable for their actions. 

Subbotin
emphasized that it was a personal decision to sign the petition. He did not
consult his law firm, nor have his employers reacted. He is prepared, with the
permission of his clients, to expose numerous cases that were opened against
his clients for purely economic reasons. So is Orlov. While he was reluctant to
go into details about these cases, Subbotin says that he can prove that in most
of them no crime was committed. 

When
pressed on how the signatories to the petition might show evidence of
corruption within the legal system, Orlov said that sooner or later, those who
have abused their office will face scrutiny. 

“Lawyers
have everything – all the documents are archived,” Orlov explained.
“Politicians and civil servants should know that they have a choice about
committing a crime, such as the beating of peaceful demonstrators. Prosecutions
might not happen tomorrow, but they should know that they could happen in a few
years, as in Chile.” 

Ultimately,
it will take more than a petition for the reform movement to become a reality and Subbotin, in fact, said he doesn’t “expect
much to come of the petition.” 

However,
Orlov is more optimistic.

He believes that his petition and the discussions among his colleagues serve as a “cleansing” exercise. As for the petition itself, Orlov sees it as having a life of its
own, saying that it will generate new ideas about how to remake the system and
inspire the legal community “to serve the law.” 

Kyiv Post journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached
at
[email protected].