A senior European Union diplomat for Eastern Europe says the latest crackdown on protests in Belarus is a sign the regime is losing its grip.

Over 50 civic organizations making up the partnership New Citizen have issued an appeal expressing concern over the effective sabotage by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Law on Access to Public Information

Three men are to be charged with grievous bodily injuries and exceeding their powers over the death in police custody of Yevhen Zvenigorodsky on 30 March this year

On 6 July officers of the MIA Special Force Berkut unit burst into the courtroom of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv where the trial is taking place of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and used physical force against journalists

The Human Rights Ombudsperson is sending a representative to the next hearing into the case of Serhiy Kostakov who is accused of damaging a car during the peaceful protest against the Tax Code in late November 2010. There are only police witnesses in this worrying case and a video which the defendant has not been allowed to see

At least 140 people have been sentenced to short terms in jail or fined for taking part in antigovernment protests in Belarus, the country’s rights activists say.

The judge decided that one day was enough for the new lawyer to read through the case material. BYUT consider that such haste reflects the wish to convict the former Prime Minister as quickly as possible.

Analysts are most doubtful about how the new legislation will be implemented. A special body should oversee its implementation, yet this is only to be created next year. For the moment its functions will be carried out by the Ministry of Justice and the Security Service

The case of Yakov Strogan whose arrest following his public allegations of torture by police officers is of enormous significance because of the lesson it is clearly trying to give others, and the very dangerous conclusions which will be drawn by certain police officers if justice does not prevail

The filming of the TV interview of President Yanukovych on Friday at his residence Mezhyhirya was organized by the President’s Press Service. There were no cameras from other television channels

On 24 May this year the Kharkiv District Administrative Court rejected a claim filed against the unlawful actions and inaction by the police during the protest in Gorky Park in Kharkiv from late May to early June 2010

Yelena Bonner, human rights defender, publicist and widow of Andrei Sakharov, has died after a long illness. Andrei Grigorenko who conveyed the news, expresses his condolences to her family which we can only echo. She was a very special and very courageous person and her passing is a great loss.

On 9 June the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that judicial measures are not used selectively, not to use criminal law to prosecute the opposition and not to restrict the freedom of movement of political leaders

On levers to stem the wave of human rights infringements and political repression in Ukraine

The first court hearing in his case is scheduled for 9 June 201 and we therefore consider it our civic duty to express our position with regard to the former Minister’s work and the reasons for his prosecution

According to the latest survey by the authoritative Razumkov Centre, an absolute majority (59.1%) think that the law enforcement agencies treat members of opposition political forces more harshly and are more mellow in their treatment of representatives of the political parties in power

Serhiy Leshchenko writes about President Yanukovych’s promise to show journalists his residence at Mezhyhirya and on the efforts of the local Village Head and a judge to prevent journalists from reminding him a year on that the promise has not been kept

Yevhen Zakharov talks about whether there is any logic to the Lutsenko cost; why members of the Tax Code protest are being put under pressure and the human rights situation in Ukraine in general

Some promise in this shocking case involving charges of attempted murder laid after months during which Yakov Strogan publicly alleged police torture. The author of the sole “evidence”, a forensic examination produced two months later, is to be cross examined and other medical documents produced

While they had urged Ukraine to pass a law on public procurement, the law adopted is so obviously aimed at fuelling, rather than preventing corruption, that it is believed that the European Commission and World Bank are pushing for its veto