He died on Aug. 5 of a heart attack, the
result of a weak heart that plagued him from birth. He had written about his
condition back in 2009, but his death was nonetheless a terrible shock for most
of us. He was only 41, immensely dynamic, intelligent, relentless in argument
and full of life. It is personally difficult to comprehend his passing, a
terrible loss for Ukraine.
Dima had worked for the last 20 years campaigning
against the death penalty, helping to defend refugees’ rights and much more. He
was absolutely committed to his work, reacting swiftly to injustice. He was not
cowered by authority and seldom saw any need to mince his words. This was seen
most recently in his efforts to obtain the release from forced confinement in a
psychiatric hospital of 70-year-old civic activist, Raisa Radchenko.
There are never any adequate words – neither words of
solace for his wife and son, nor ways of expressing the loss to those whom he
helped, those whose rights he could have continued to defend.
There
are however words of anger and frustration since Dima Groysman had been the
target of absurd criminal proceedings since October 2010. There had recently
been some positive movement in the case but the toll it took on him was
undoubtedly great. Over nearly three years he had faced 72 court hearings, had to
defend himself against idiotic charges and live under constant stress given the
total unpredictability of the judicial system and of those with ways of
influencing it.
A scheduled hearing was held on Wednesday morning at
the Vinnytsa City Court. Around 50
friends and colleagues attended, many holding small placards reading: “The cops
and prosecutors killed my friend.” Dima’s lawyer, Oleksandr Stolyarov read the
speech which Dima had planned to read out himself.
The verdict in this shameful case is due on Monday, Aug.
12. There were grave procedural irregularities in the case, and the very
charges were so absurd that concern about the motives for this prosecution was voiced
far beyond Ukraine.
The charges lodged back in October 2010 were under two
articles of the Criminal Code. He
was accused of “desecration of State symbols” (Article 338 § 1 of the Criminal
Code) and disseminating pornography (Article 301 § 1). Among the very large
number of worrying aspects of the case was the fact that the charges were based
on material posted on his LiveJournal blog.
The
police turned up on Oct. 16 at Dima’s flat. Although they only had a warrant to
search his flat, they also carried out a search of the offices of the Vinnytsa
Human Rights Group next door. The search was supposedly on suspicion of
circulating pornography, yet the police officers confiscated financial and
other documents, including material regarding asylum seekers whom the Vinnytsa
Human Rights Group was assisting.
Exactly
two years ago, the Leninsky District Court in Vinnytsa upheld Dima’s appeal
against the prosecutor’s refusal to investigate the unlawful search of the VHG
offices. There were other successes and yet the case continued, permanently
hanging over Dima’s head, and presumably intended as a warning to other civic
and human rights activists.
On Dec.
21, 2010, Dima received official notification of the charges he faced.
“Desecration
of the State emblem”
The
image deemed a criminal offence can be seen here and dates back
to July 2009. In June 2009 a
number of human rights and media organizations had called on President
Yushchenko to veto planned amendments to the Criminal Code criminalizing
possession of pornographic material for the purpose of sale or circulation. The
law was heavily criticized for failing to achieve its supposed purpose of
fighting child pornography while at the same time imposing unwarranted restrictions
on freedom of expression. Dima’s image was posted in disgust over the president’s
failure to react in defence of children and of freedom of expression.
As
mentioned, the image was on a personal blog, not the front page of a
newspaper. The argument that the blog was on free access did
not explain why a human rights activist was facing criminal prosecution, while
countless sites inciting people to racial enmity, sometimes in radical form,
were consistently ignored. The charges potentially carried a sentence of three
years imprisonment.
Article
301 Pornography
There
were two charges under Article 301 § 1, with the first relating to Dima’s entry
here di-mur.livejournal.com. The
clip showed people similar to some well-known Russian figures and was freely
available for viewing on YouTube.
He
was also charged over images from a German Foundation fighting AIDS, albeit
with added words reading: Ukrainian police officer! When communicating with the
boss and citizens, observe safety rules!” (scroll to the bottom here)
The mental acrobatics required to understand this last
charge which supposedly relates to pornography, not riling up police officers, were
beyond most of us. They were a strain as well to international NGOs, European
Union officials and others who expressed strong concern over the charges laid
against a prominent human rights activist.
Dima
Groysman’s voice has fallen silent and some would argue that none of this
matters. This would almost certainly not have been his view,
and should not be ours.
Halya Coynash is a member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group.
