MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Prosecutor sees no grounds for suspending investigator over forced confession

12.07.2012   
An investigation already stopped once, is now continuing again into how journalist Maxim Kasyanov was forced into “confessing” to an attempt on the Governor of the Donetsk Region
>

 

The Prosecutor General’s Office has stated that it sees no grounds as yet for suspending the Donetsk Prosecutor’s Office investigator who forced journalist Maxim Kasyanov to “confess to” an attempt on the Governor of the Donetsk Region.  This came in response to a request for information about obstruction of Kasyanov in carrying out his journalist activities submitted by the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yury Stets.

The Prosecutor General’s Office says that the Donetsk Prosecutor’s Office carried out a check and on 30 June issued a decision refusing to initiate a criminal investigation.  This, however, was “taken prematurely, without a full, objective and all-sided examination of the circumstances of the event and was cancelled by a decision from the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor on 2 July. The material was sent to the Donetsk Prosecutor’s Office for an additional check which is continuing at present”.

On 21 June Maxim Kasyanov confirmed that he had formally “confessed” to  an attack on the head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, Andriy Shyshatsky.  This came after information about the confession was released by the press secretary of the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Kasyanov said that he had been forced to do this because of pressure from Investigator Rudenko who demanded the confession.

“It was already 20.00, my lawyer Tetyana Ivanova who is helping me for free had not eaten from early morning. Investigator Rudenko asked the lawyer to leave and said: “Tell me how you carried out an attempt on the Governor.”.  I explain to him that they attacked me. But he says that I will sit there until I sign the confession. I then rejected the services of a lawyer in order to let her go. After that the investigator insisted that he wouldn’t let me go until I wrote the confession. I wrote it. Let him now investigate it if he wants to earn some stars. What else shall to confess to?  That I also destroyed a 15 century church”.

The journalist asserts that he and his colleagues have all the photo and video evidence to prove what actually happened.  On 20 June he stated that he had been attacked by unknown individuals when he was filming the Governor’s car. These individuals identified themselves to the police as the Governor’s guards.

The police press service claims that during the Governor’s visit Maxim’s behaviour aroused suspicions from officials of the State Tax Service, that he was detained and handed over to police officers.

New information from Telekritika

 Share this