Grave concerns over Dnipropetrovsk bombing trial

Oksana Tomchuk

Dmytro Reva, one of the men charged in connection with the Dnipropetrovsk bombs in April 2012 says that the police applied torture and psychological pressure.  He asserts that he was held for several hours with his legs half in splits position and his arms raised. One of the SBU [Security Service] officers, he says, threatened to show him how fragile the human body is, while offering to bring coffee and cigarettes if he confessed.  

Mr Reva’s lawyer, Oksana Tomchuk calls the charges against her client absurd and unlawful. She asserts that he is charged purely with having been in the centre of town on the instruction of one of the other men accused.  She says that there is no evidence of his involvement in the crime.

Both the defence lawyers and the Head of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Yevhen Zakharov, speak of serious infringements of procedure in the case.  Defence lawyer Olena Kyryllova told TVi that there had been falsifications in the case, and pointed out that her client (L. Prossvirnin) was arrested without a protocol being drawn up.

Reva and Prosvirnin are two of four men arrested and charged with a number of explosions in Dnipropetrovsk on 27 April 2012.  The four explosions coincided with major national and international coverage of Yulia Tymoshenko’s allegations that she had been mistreated by prison staff.  The explosions did not kill anybody, but 31 people were injured.

On 31 May, shortly before the beginning of Euro 2012 which Ukraine was co-host of, it was announced that 2 suspects had been arrested for allegedly demanding four and a half million dollars or else they would continue to plant bombs.  On 1 June it was announced that 4 people had been arrested and remanded in custody.  Viktor Sukachev is a Senior Professor of Political Science at the Dnipropetrovsk National Universiity and Vitaly Fedoriak is an Assistant Professor.

Another worrying aspect of the case is the way entirely different motives have been put forward by the investigators, with political motives suddenly being included in what had originally been presented as an attempt to extort money.

From reports at TVi