Convicting ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies will be impossible due to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s restructuring of his agency, the relatives and lawyers of killed EuroMaidan protesters said at a news briefing on Oct. 25.
As a result of Lutsenko’s decisions, Yanukovych and his associates are unlikely to be convicted by Ukrainian courts, and – even if they are – the rulings will be canceled by the European Court of Human Rights, lawyers Yevhenia Zakrevska and Vitaliy Tytych argued.
Moreover, Lutsenko’s plans to send the cases by the end of the year will only ensure more legal obstacles in cases that are not ready, which will also result in a failure to convict Yanukovych and his allies, his critics said.
Lutsenko has denied the lawyers’ accusations, arguing that he cannot wait forever until sending Yanukovych-era cases to court and that the restructuring will speed up and streamline the investigations.
Currently, the corruption case against Yanukovych’s Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych has been sent to court, while all other major Yanukovych-era graft cases are in the pre-trial stage.
Five Berkut riot police officers are also on trial in the case into the murders of protesters, while the case against the organizers of the murders has not yet been sent to court. At least 100 demonstrators were killed in the waning days of the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014.
Restructuring
Lutsenko on Oct. 24 transferred Yanukovych-era graft cases from Serhiy Horbatiuk’s department for trials in absentia to the newly-created department for investigating organized crime. The investigations into crimes against EuroMaidan protesters, including the murder of at least 100 demonstrators, remain at Horbatiuk’s department but may also be transferred in the future.
The department for trials in absentia was set up in late 2014 to speed up and unite most investigations against the former president and top Yanukovych-era officials, which had been moving at a snail’s pace and reportedly had been blocked. The department has actively cooperated with the relatives of killed protesters and their lawyers, who have repeatedly praised Horbatiuk’s performance.
Horbatiuk’s department will have 56 employees, including 20 investigators and 10 prosecutors, while the new department will have 106 employees.
The new department will be headed by Dmytro Basov and supervised by Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk, who has been accused of sabotaging Yanukovych-era cases ever since he was put in charge of all prosecutorial investigations in March 2015. He denies the accusations.
Lutsenko “de facto liquidated the department for trials in absentia,” stripping it of most of its resources, the lawyers of killed EuroMaidan protesters said in a statement on Oct. 24.
“Everything the victims have achieved over the past two years is being destroyed,” they said. “…Effectively Yuriy Lutsenko is exempting Yanukovych and other suspects from (criminal) responsibility.”
The lawyers also said that they and the relatives of killed EuroMaidan demonstrators would not have any control over the criminal investigations after the restructuring.
Horbatiuk also said on Oct. 25 that “all work is being destroyed, this is a step towards the destruction of the results of our work and failure to convict the culprits.”
Lutsenko is planning to send a united in absentia case against Yanukovych and his allies over corruption, treason, usurpation of power and the murders of EuroMaidan demonstrators to court by the end of this year. But the lawyers argue that this will lead to a disaster because the cases are not ready and face numerous legal obstacles.
It’s physically impossible for the defense lawyers and victims to examine the 5,000 volumes of the united criminal case by the April 15, 2017 deadline set by Ukrainian law for sending the in absentia case to trial, Yevhenia Zakrevska, a lawyer of murdered EuroMaidan proterters, said at the Oct. 25 briefing.
Conflict with Horbatiuk
Lutsenko has been involved in a conflict with Horbatiuk ever since he became prosecutor general in May.
Earlier this month Lutsenko reprimanded Horbatiuk for allegedly failing to properly investigate cases against Yanukovych and his associates.
Horbatiuk has described the reprimand as illegal and unjustified. “The conflict (with Lutsenko) was caused exclusively by my reluctance to carry out illegal instructions,” he said on Oct. 24.
In June Lutsenko also took the corruption case against ex-Tax and Revenue Minister Oleksandr Klymenko away from Horbatiuk’s department.
Lutsenko has also appointed his loyalists as deputies of Horbatiuk in an effort to have more control over his unit.
The conflict was triggered by Lutsenko’s plans to send in absentia cases against Yanukovych and his allies to court by the end of this year.
But Horbatiuk argued in a letter sent to Lutsenko in August that the May 2016 law on trials in absentia contradicted both Ukrainian and international law, including the provisions banning selective justice.
Moreover, the law sets the April 15, 2017 deadline for such in absentia cases but does not make it clear whether it is a deadline for sending them to court or convicting the suspects, he said. It is impossible for convictions in such complicated cases to be made by that time, Horbatiuk added.
As a result, the convictions in these cases will likely be canceled by the European Court of Human Rights, and Ukraine will have to pay compensation to the suspects, he said.
Horbatiuk told the Kyiv Post that the in absentia cases should only be sent to court if the law is changed.
Lutsenko said on Oct. 25 he would initiate amendments to improve the law on trials in absentia.
