Students also felt the hard hand of the law.
The court case over the death of a young student Igor Indylo, who died under suspicious circumstances in police custody, resulted in a very mild punishment without any imprisonment for the militia officers who are implicated in the student’s death. In fact, this is part of an ongoing trend where Ukrainian courts refuse to deliver serious punishments to law enforcers known to be responsible for the mysterious deaths of young people in their custody.
Ukrainian justice was also particularly cruel upon the political opposition, with perfect examples being the cases against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and many others.
According to Human Rights Watch the public trust in Ukrainian courts has fallen dramatically. The organisation’s annual report concludes that the guilty verdicts delivered to Tymoshenko and other former government officials have shattered public confidence in the independence of the courts.
Entrepreneurs have also felt the sting of the judge’s gavel, with tax-protest activists being accused of damaging paving stones on Independence Square where protests were held.
Relatives of high state officials who commit crimes with indisputable evidence against them somehow receive special treatment in the courts. They do not account for fatal road accidents they cause whilst children with wealthy parents feel free to beat up ordinary citizens. In January a deputy’s son was found guilty for beating a young woman and sentenced to three years of imprisonment with a probation period of two years. He was immediately released. Provided he does not get caught breaking the law over the next two years, he may well go free.
Representatives of the European Union have on many occasions publicly condemned the selective nature of Ukrainian justice).This was one of the reasons why the association agreement between Ukraine and EU was not ratified last year.
Decreasing public confidence in the legal system creates some distinct risks for the governing authorities. Ukrainian sociologists report that citizens are choosing to blame the situation in the country on President Viktor Yanukovych.
At the same time, the government makes occasional claims to an understanding of problem with the system of justice in Ukraine. For example, the president recently announced a new Criminal Code, to be adopted in Ukraine in the nearest future. Yanukovych believes the code will positively influence the development of Ukraine as it introduces the principle of competition between prosecution and defense.
Balance, rule of law, presumption of innocence and proper protection of human rights are allegedly just around the corner. The president of Ukraine is confident that the new Criminal Code will be an important step towards creating an efficient system of state administration, creating balance among all the branches of power and establishing democratisation.
Let us hope that the governing authorities realize the danger of the court system losing its independence, as should it happen, it will utterly undermine the balance of the whole political system of the country.
People First Comment: On a warm summer’s afternoon in central Kyiv last year, a young judge’s assistant mounted the curb in her Mercedes 4×4 and proceeded to drive down the sidewalk looking for a place to park. In any other European city, a driver doing this would attract the attention of the public and, if available, the police. In Kyiv however, it is common practice; with pedestrians having to squeeze their way past cars parked half, or often fully, on the pavement.
Sadly this story doesn’t end with one girl’s disregard for the Ukrainian traffic code. In what local police believe to have been a momentary confusion between the brake and accelerator pedals, Nataliya Solovey lost control of her vehicle, running down and killing Svitlana Teterevkova; a married mother of three.
When the case went to court in November, a verdict was delivered that might shock readers who are unfamiliar with the ways of the Ukrainian legal system: freedom from prosecution, return of impounded vehicle, return of driving licence and no entry into criminal record – which would have otherwise impacted her job at the state judicial service.
Judge Volodymyr Bugil explained that the amnesty was granted on compassionate grounds – Miss Solovey being a mother with two young children; a compassion contrasted by the fact that the victim’s family will see neither justice nor compensation.
Apparently Ukraine’s judiciary can be as selective in its compassion as it can in its wrath: one need only cite the case of Lutsenko, a key political opponent to the government, who was jailed for 6 months, before even a case against him was submitted to court, and has remained there for a further 7 months as new allegations periodically materialize.
Optimistic hopes that these are but freak-cases are to no avail – they embody what in Ukraine is common knowledge: a connection to Ukraine’s ruling political and business elite, which are largely one and the same, effectively bestows immunity from prosecution; whilst outsiders must choose between compliance or pseudo-legal persecution.
Whether it is a councilor’s son crushing a motorcyclist with his Bentley, or a deputy’s son beating a 20-year-old woman in the middle of a crowded restaurant (as witnessed by thousands since the CCTV footage was leaked to YouTube), or even the theft of an entire shopping center from its international owners, the elite know that by carrot or by stick they have the means to generate near-enough whatever verdict they like.
Aside from the damage such a partisan judicial service does to the injured parties, attention should be paid to the impact its toleration by the Ukrainian people has upon the notional relationship between justice and the rule of law.
Despite the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office having a 98 percent conviction rate, making it perhaps the most effective legal body in the world, trust for it and other state arms, such as the militia and secret service, exists in only 10-16 percent of the population.
The divorce between the legal system and the public sense of social security is a manifest threat to the organizational fabric of the nation itself: as the power of the state and the institutions that support it are perceived as oppressors to the common man; echoing the totalitarian aspects of the bygone Soviet era.
Though calls from European neighborrs for a strengthening of the rule of law might seem constructive, until the public believe that the laws and law makers act in the national interest, rather than their own, stricter enforcement will only have a further destabilizing effect at the social level.
If politicians can get away with murder, the public will see no shame in testing the rules themselves, such as driving on the pavement or perhaps rising in violent protest.
Viktor Tkachuk is chief executive officer of the People First Foundation, which seeks to strengthen Ukrainian democracy. The organization’s website is: www.peoplefirst.org.ua and the e-mail address is: [email protected]
