You're reading: Rights activist: Over 20 cases of political persecution in Ukraine

Leading Ukrainian human rights activist Yevhen Zakharov announced on Aug. 4 the creation of a Committee Against Political Persecution aimed at documenting cases of political persecution and making them public.

In an interview with the Kyiv Post, Zakharov said political persecution in Ukraine is on the rise and is seen not only in the prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political leaders, but other activists in lesser-known cases.

Apart from Zakharov, the 12 other members of the committee include veteran rights campaigners such as Myroslav Marynovych and Yevhen Sverstyuk, both founders of the Ukraine Helsinki Group.

Kyiv Post: Why have you launched the Committee Against Political Persecution at this time?

Yevhen Zakharov: We are concerned by the number of politically motivated persecutions in Ukraine at the moment. The initial idea to launch the committee came to me early last year, and I have been working with other committee members to get the idea on its feet since then. The issues that we are concerned with are politically motivated illegal detention and persecution.

KP: Are there any concrete cases that motivated you to found the committee?

YZ: There have been several cases since the current administration came into power that motivated us to act. Four of them concern [former Interior Minister] Yuriy Lutsenko, [former Deputy Justice Minister] Yevhen Korniychuk, and cases in Kharkiv and Lviv. The last two cases are instances where demonstrators were arrested.
The Kharkiv case is maybe the most complicated but very demonstrative. It is a story connected with illegal logging that happened during May and June. The authorities approved plans to put a road through a park. The real reason for the road was to provide access to the villas of Kharkiv VIPs and rich people. More than 1,000 trees over 100 years old were destroyed.
Protestors from the organization Green Front lived in the park for over two weeks to protest against the road. But in vain. There were many beatings. By the way, my son was arrested, too, during the protests. Two people were held in prison for 15 days. Apart from these [four] cases we counted at least around 20 other cases of political persecution since the new government came to power.

KP: Is this committee important because of recent developments in the situation of political persecutions?

YZ: The seriousness of political persecutions cannot be overestimated. Individual cases can quickly turn into mass or widespread persecutions. I hope that there will be no widespread persecutions of political activists. In fact there should not be any politically motivated persecution. I believe that the general issue of persecutions in Ukraine is serious.

KP: Did the amount of politically motivated persecutions increase with the new government?

YZ: Yes, it increased! Before 2010 there generally was no political persecution. You see they want to show everyone that this is not political persecution but a war against corruption. We think its persecution because if it was a fight against corruption it would not be selective.

KP: What precisely is the committee planning to do?

YZ: For us, it is necessary to collect information, to publish it, to distribute it. We will publish a weekly chronicle on political persecutions in Ukraine, which will be distributed among our partners, the media, our international partners. For us it is important to make the cases public and to explicitely classify them as cases of political persecution. They might be saying it’s a fight against corruption. We want to make explicit: its political persecution. We will also provide legal support to the victims, by providing them with lawyers. Moreover, we might give financial support to the victims and their families. Finally, we will protest and engage in other forms of collective action.

KP: Where does your funding come from?

YZ: There is no specific funding for the new committee, as we will use pre-existing moneys from our donors. We are funded by the National Charity Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, and receive some money from the German and U.S. Embassies in Kyiv, among other sources.

KP: How do you assess the Tymoshenko trial and did you expect that she would be imprisoned?

YZ: Well, I did not expect them to go that far. I think the fact that she has been imprisoned characterizes just how bad the situation in our country is. So far, I can’t see any evidence for her guilt and in a just judicial system she would have been found not guilty. There is also the issue of her defense lawyers not being able to see the case, which constitutes a very basic violation of the defendant’s rights.

KP: What do you think will be the outcome of the trial?

YZ: I am not very optimistic. The trial so far has shown how unjust and selective our judicial system is, so I am not positive.