Parliament on Feb. 24 voted to free father and son Dmytro Pavlychenko and Serhiy Pavlychenko, respectively, as part of a bill to release 23 political prisoners. They had been convicted for killing a judge in a case many believed to be fabricated.
A cross-section of 316 lawmakers, including from the now
oppositional Party of Regions, passed the bill with a constitutional majority.
Dmytro Pavlychenko, 50, is serving a life sentence in
Chernihiv Oblast, while his son, 21, is serving a 13-year prison term in
Kharkiv Oblast.
Although investigators insisted the Pavlychenkos were guilty
of murdering Kyiv Shevchenko District Court Judge Serhiy Zubkov on March 21,
2011, their supporters maintained they were framed and innocent of the crime.
After police detained the father and son three days after
Zubkov’s death, an advocacy campaign was launched by the hard-core fan club of
Dynamo Kyiv soccer team. Serhiy Pavlychenko was a member of the group.
The fan club’s efforts soon garnered widespread attention among
other soccer team fan clubs in and outside the country. Ukrainian celebrities
also joined their cause. Singer Ruslana Lyzhychko even devoted an album to the
Pavlychenkos.
“There are many representatives of football in this
legislative chamber,” said Party of Regions lawmaker Nestor Shufrych before the
vote. “It will be testimony that you cannot destroy people at the whim of one
or a small group of people. Let this family be freed and reunite with their
family…our factions supports this bill.”
The nation’s highest court for criminal and civil cases on
Jan. 23 upheld two lower court rulings that found the Pavlychenkos guilty.
Speaking to the Kyiv Post from prison, Dmytro Pavlychenko
said he was “shocked” at the ruling and called the case against him and his son
“totally fabricated…a fable.”
The Pavlychenkos’ legal defense said that investigators
omitted material evidence that would’ve exonerated them and insisted that
investigators failed to meet the burden of proof in the case.
In January 2013, confidential case file
materials in the controversial murder were made available to media outlets,
including the Kyiv Post that suggested the Pavlychenkos were innocent. In
consultation with two lawyers, the Kyiv Post examined the materials, which
point to a body of evidence that the official version omitted because it would’ve
damaged their case and exonerated the two.
The alleged whistleblower who sent the Kyiv
Post an e-mailed message on Jan. 31, 2013 that included the internet address of
the file sharing website said the information was made public “on behalf of all
prosecutors who still have a conscience left,” adding that he cannot “look at
such a disgrace with what is being done in the name of the public prosecutor’s
office in the courts anymore.”
The anonymous e-mailer
furthermore wrote that “when the (murder) case is thrown together so insolently
and thoughtlessly, then it’s clear to even the inexperienced (law enforcer)
that (the case) received approval from very high up.”
In response, the Kyiv City
Prosecutor’s Office on Feb. 6, 2013 called the case file disclosure “nothing
but pressure on the courts” since the murder case was still being heard by an
appeals court.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
