The chief investigator into Euromaidan-related crimes has warned that failings in legislation on in absentia trials could result in any convictions against former President Viktor Yanukovych being quashed.   Such warnings have been made since the law was passed and Serhiy Horbatyuk is not alone in suspecting that there are some who find it convenient to retain doubts about the legitimacy of any trial and conviction. 

Public anger remains high over the extraordinarily light sentence passed on Yury Krysin for his role in the savage killing of Maidan journalist Viacheslav Veremiy. Details about the judge’s role in persecuting Maidan activists and an apparent attempt to keep the ruling secret have only compounded suspicions that Krysin has protectors within the law enforcement system

The first and only trial so far over the fatal attack on journalist Viacheslav Veremiy during Euromaidan has ended in a four-year suspended sentence with a two-year probation period passed on Yury Krysin for his undisputed part in the killing.  Judge Oleh Linnyk from the Shevchenkivsk Court in Kyiv, ignored the prosecutor’s call for a six-year prison sentence, and found him guilty only of ‘hooliganism’, with his alleged repentance and two underage children given as mitigating circumstances.

Both the BBC and StopFake have scrutinized the latest media allegations regarding the gunning down of Maidan activists and found them flawed and suspect. The claimed link with former Georgian President and aspiring rival to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko goes back a long way, but could have been pulled out now so as to later use the recent unlawful expulsion of some Saakashvili associates as supposed ‘proof’ that Ukraine’s leaders have something to hide.

On the fourth anniversary of Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, or Euromaidan, only one person is serving an actual prison sentence for crimes against Maidan activists, and President Petro Poroshenko seems poised to sign a disastrous bill which could force the termination of most Maidan investigations.

The Special Investigations Department has named four men, including a general holding a high post in Ukraine’s National Guard whom it suspects of having coordinated the Berkut storming of Maidan on 18-19 February, 2014

If Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signs a law just passed by the Verkhovna Rada, the Special Investigations Department will be forced to terminate all investigations into unsolved crimes committed during Euromaidan, however serious.  The adopted amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code [CPC] would have similar consequences for corruption and other criminal investigations, including that hanging over Andriy Lozovy, the MP who proposed the amendment. 

Russia’s trial on openly falsified charges of Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov has reached its squalid end, with the real aim likely to be reflected in a ban on public activities, accompanying the demanded suspended sentence. No reversion to rule of law is anticipated, although the verdict is due a day after a UN monitoring report expressed exactly the same position on Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukrainian Crimea as that for which Russia has put 60-year-old Umerov on trial.

Three and a half years after shots fired from inside the Khmelnytsky SBU [Security Service] office killed 73-year-old Ludmila Sheremet and seriously injured other Maidan activists, the investigation into the shooting appears to have been deliberately sabotaged

Photos from the violent suppression of peaceful protests in Russia on June 12 have exposed a man now in Russian OMON riot police gear, but wanted by Ukraine for his leading role in the bloody dispersal of Maidan activists on November 30, 2013. Serhiy Kusyuk is the second key suspect who appears to now be helping the regime under Russian President Vladimir Putin to crush protest.

The High Council of Justice has decided that there are no grounds for dismissing Yevhen Ablov, the Kyiv judge who ordered Berkut riot police to forcibly disperse Euromaidan activists in December 2013.

Two weeks after 4 suspects, one accused of murder, fled to Russia, another person has been released despite objections from the prosecutor. Euromaidan SOS has spoken of a coordinated system for escaping justice and believes that it could not exist without the direct connivance of those in power.

In a move which was easily to be predicted and averted, a former Berkut officer suspected of direct involvement in the killing of Maidan activists has been allowed to escape justice. Vitaly Honcharenko was released from custody on April 6 and on April 13 crossed, unimpeded, into Russia, together with three former Kharkiv Berkut colleagues.

Yury Krysin admits taking part in the fatal attack on journalist Viacheslav Veremiy during Euromaidan and has been convicted of numerous other violent crimes. Yet “Ukrainian judges have only to see him and they’re seized by a burning desire to release him from custody”

It is unlikely that President Petro Poroshenko will veto a law that he has himself lobbied for, but that is precisely what civic activists are demanding. Draft law No. 5610, passed by the Verkhovna Rada on March 16, will not help bring ex-president Viktor Yanukovych to justice, while seriously narrowing Ukrainian citizens’ rights, they warn

The Kremlin is well known for pulling former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych out of hiding for its own purposes. Now Ukraine’s leaders have been accused of using Yanukovych as an excuse to push legislation that may have dangerous repercussions for Ukraine’s justice system—while not necessarily bringing Yanukovych and his cronies any closer to justice

Laws passed since Maidan are actively blocking the chances of holding those guilty of crimes against Maidan activists to answer. Most worryingly, the law on trial in absentia, essentially tailored around former President Viktor Yanukovych could result in European Court of Human Rights judgements against Ukraine.

A journalist investigation has highlighted disturbing police and prosecutor links which may explain the baffling downgrading in the charges against Yury Krysin, who took part in the killing of journalist Viacheslav Veremiy during the bloodiest days of Euromaidan in February 2014.

It is three years since Maidan activists Serhiy Nihoyan and Mikhail Zhyznevsky were killed on Hrushevsky St in Kyiv. 21-year-old Serhiy Nihoyan died first, killed by sniper bullets to the head and chest. An hour later it was learned that 25-year-old Mikail Zhyznevsky had also been shot and killed

12 of 23 ex-Berkut officers suspected of gunning down protesters in the last bloody days of Euromaidan have now received Russian citizenship or leave to remain as ‘refugees’. It appears now that 3 other officers on trial over the deaths have been added to the list of people to be handed over in exchange for Ukrainian hostages.