You're reading: Prosecutors say Kyiv judges obstruct justice involving EuroMaidan

More than half a year after the end of the EuroMaidan Revolution, none of the crimes – including the murders or more than 100 demonstrators – has been punished.

Prosecutors say their attempts to bring to justice in a range of cases involving lesser crimes than murder are being blocked by the Kyiv Pechersk Court, the same court which sentenced ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to prison more than three years ago on politically motivated charges. Meanwhile, the investigations into the murders are continuing.

Instead of sanctioning certain procedural moves by the general prosecutor’s office against perpetrators of crimes, the court’s judges have, instead, been obstructing investigations, according to prosecutors, based on a preliminary batch of cases for lesser crimes for which they have sought court action.

The Pechersk court, however, refuted any allegations, of wrongdoing or obstruction. In written comments for the Kyiv Post, Svitlana Smyk, head of the court, said that her court acted within its legal powers and within the framework of law. She also warned against any attempts “to influence the court.” She also said that the court would not make any more details of the pre-trial investigations available.

There are 29 criminal cases open to investigate illegal arrests by Berkut and other police units of 130 protesters. They were accused of taking part in mass riots in January and February 2014. Those officials who ordered the illegal arrests still occupy their positions in the police force and other agencies.

In one case, seven students of Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and TV were returning home late on Jan. 20, 2013 when several cars stopped next to them and the students were forced inside them. One young man managed to run away, but the other six were taken to the police station and accused of taking part in violent mass riots on Hrushevsky Street that started the previous day.

The students, however, explained that they were visiting protest sites to collect footage for a film, which was a part of their assignment at the university. Nevertheless, two students were jailed for a month, while four others were sentenced to house arrest.

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After the end of the revolution, which deposed the authoritarian and corrupt regime of President Viktor Yanukovych, the prosecutor’s office found that these young people “had nothing to do with events on Hrushevsky Street, but were only collecting video footage for their academic works,” Larysa Milevych, spokeswoman of the prosecutor general, said in a letter to Anti-Corruption Action Center, a corruption watchdog. The letter was obtained by the Kyiv Post.

Around the same time, two drivers were arrested in the center of Kyiv simply because they had car tires in their trunk. EuroMaidan protesters burned tires in January to defend themselves from police fire as confrontations increased between rioters and the government.

The men who were transporting tires were accused of participating in riots on Hrushevsky Street, including hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at the police, and setting police vehicles on fire. They were jailed despite a lack of evidence to prove their crimes.

Investigators of the general prosecutor’s office found these cases to be illegal, and assembled enough evidence to open probes against three police officers, two prosecutors and one judge for abuse of human rights of the drivers who carried car tires.

But to move any further, they needed the Kyiv Pechersk court to suspend these officials from their duties and the court refused to do it, Milevych said. The investigators filed an appeal, she added.

An investigator at the general prosecutor’s office, who spoke to the Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity, said that the Pechersk court, whose judges have not been rotated after the revolution, has been consistently stalling investigations against law enforcers, other judges and officials.

He also said sensitive and confidential information has been leaked from this court in high profile cases, for example, when prosecutors would request a search warrant. “The next day we arrive for a search, but the residence was cleared out the night before,” the investigator explained.

He said it was really difficult to work under such circumstances, especially now, when many high profile investigations are coming to an end and require procedural moves, including detentions, of senior former and current officials.

The Kyiv Post sources in prosecutor general’s office also said that the Pechersk Court refused to grant detectives access to files of criminal cases related to EuroMaidan and other earlier investigations. One of those cases is the 2011 arrest of ex-Interior Minister Yury Lutsenko. He was sentenced for abuse of office in a case that the European Court for Human Rights called political. Lutsenko was released from prison last year and has become an adviser to President Petro Poroshenko.