While the president’s signing on Monday of an “amnesty” bill may (or may not) lead to dubious criminal proceedings against at least two journalists being dropped, lawyers are also actively working to ensure that violence against journalists does not go unpunished.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have demanded that the Ukrainian authorities properly investigate the violence against peaceful pro-EU protesters and punish those responsible. They also condemn measures aimed at intimidating police victims

Ominous indicationOminous indications of heavy-handed methods, illegitimate demands for information and preposterous criminal proceedings aimed at intimidating local authorities, as well as individuals, protesting against the government’s about-turn on EU integration and brutal suppression of peaceful protest.

Several dozen people held a protest on Sunday near the Party of the Regions headquarters on Lypska St in Kyiv. They were angry that despite promises, they had not been paid for taking part in the pro-government rally in Maryinsky Park.

A Road Control activist has been shot and injured, and his car set alight in the latest attack on people from this civic watchdog which monitors the work of the traffic police.

Serhiy Radchenko, one of the peaceful protesters who disappeared after the brutal attack by Berkut riot police on Nov 30 has been found alive, though in a very bad state. Three people remain missing.

Three young men who burned a portrait of the presidentat a meeting of the Kalush City Council have been summoned for questioning. For the moment, they are considered witnesses, however this status is often fluid in Ukraine, as is the concept of what constitutes criminal behaviour

Two ominous court rulings on Friday cast in question any willingness by those in power to renounce repressive measures against peaceful protesters, journalists and lawyers representing them

On Dec 19 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a draft bill which apparently provides an amnesty for those who took part in the EuroMaidan protests while not protecting those guilty of beating up peaceful protesters. How much it will achieve this is, unfortunately, not so clear.

The Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement [UMDPL] have prepared a legal analysis of the actions taken by law enforcement officers during the dispersing of peaceful protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti on Nov 30 and during the Dec 1 confrontation on Bankova St.

Unlike in Russia and Belarus where censorship and legal methods are used for putting pressure on journalists, “in Ukraine physical violence is practised”

On Dec 19 the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Oleh Matiash guilty of assaulting a police officer during the scuffles outside the Cabinet of Ministers building on Nov 24

Svitlana Malytska, journalist and photographer for traffic police watchdog Road Control was brutally assaulted in the lift to her flat on the evening of Dec 16, less than 2 weeks after two colleagues were remanded in custody on highly questionable charges

Mykola Khavronyuk from the Centre for Political and Legal Reform stresses that Maya Moskvych and others now facing criminal proceedings cannot be accused of “denigrating” the president’s portrait which is not an offence in Ukrainian legislation

Criminal charges have been laid against Maya Moskvych and five other people, including Volyn deputies, over a protest action during which three portraits of the president were taken out of the Volyn Regional Council building and carried, upside down, to the centre of the city.

On Dec 17 the Shevchenkivsky District Court in Kyiv released Lviv photographer and EuroMaidan activist, Oleh Panas, effectively in exchange for a plea of „guilty”

A Kyiv court has rejected the appeal lodged by Kadura, a businessman and activist of the AutoMaidan protests, against his two month detention. Kadura was arrested together with well-known Road Control journalist Andriy Dzyndzya on charges which arouse deep scepticism.

Three men still in detention include a journalist and photographer arrested over alleged and disputed involvement in disturbances on Dec 1 and the lawyer of one of the men. Ombudsperson Valeria Lutkovska’s public statement ignores grave doubts about all three cases

In further corroboration of reports that police officers, highly trained in combat fighting, are being brought into Kyiv and paid considerable amounts of money, members of the elite Lavanda unit have been seen near parliament

With Ukraine’s present economic difficulties, it is legitimate to ask who is paying for the pro-president demonstration and other preparations underway for this weekend – and why. Not only are public sector workers and miners being transported to Kyiv in large numbers, but also police officers recruited for their brawn, boxing skills etc. There are disturbing indications that titushki, or hired thugs, are also arriving in force.