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The Right to a Fair Trial in Ukraine

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The Right to a Fair Trial in Ukraine I N T E R N A T I O N A L S O C I E T Y F O R H U M A N R I G H T S THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL IN UKRAINE REPORT 2019 The report is published with support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development The report is published with support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Right to a Fair Trial in Ukraine Editor: A. Alekseyev February 2020 International Society for Human Rights International Council, Borsigallee 9, 60486 Frankfurt am Main (Germany) Ukrainian section Pl. Lesi Ukrainki 1, 01196 Kiev (Ukraine) Contents Introduction 6 1. Observance of the right to a fair trial in Ukraine, analysis of the situation, identification of problematic trends8 1.1. Violation of a principle of reasonable length of proceedings . .8 1.2. Violation of the right to defense . 10 1.3. Torture and degrading treatment . 12 1.4. The inclusion of \doubtful" evidence into the case materials . 15 1.5. Other violations . 17 1.6. Positive trends . 18 1.7. Conclusions . 19 2. Analysis of statistics 21 2.1. The publicity of court hearings . 21 2.2. Court hearings . 22 2.3. Ratio of the number of detected violations to the incriminated crimes . 23 2.4. Equality of the parties . 25 2.5. Relationship of the charge and the number of violations in the trial . 26 2.6. Conclusions . 27 3. Reports of the monitoring of court sessions in 2019 29 3.1. The trial of Ivan Bubenchik . 29 3.2. The trial of Konstantin Chernyshov . 30 3.3. The trial of Vladimir Dovgalyuk . 34 3.4. The trial of Sergei Goncharuk . 37 3.5. The trial of Dmitry Gubin . 39 3.6. The trial of Gennady Kernes . 39 3.7. The trial of Andrei Khandrykin . 42 3.8. The trial of Marina Kovtun . 43 3.9. The trial of C. Kozak . 46 3.10. The trial of Natalya Kulish . 48 3.11. The trial of Ruslan Kunavin . 52 3.12. The trial of Mehti Logunov . 53 3.13. The trial of Daria Mastikasheva . 55 3.14. The trial of Alexander Melnik . 58 3.15. The trial of Petr Mikhalchevsky . 68 3.16. The trial of Vasily Muravitsky . 69 3.17. The trial of Sergei Novak . 76 3.18. The trial of Larisa Papaevich . 78 3.19. The trial of Alexander Schegolev . 79 3.20. The trial of Sergey Sergeyev . 82 3.21. The letigations of Shostak versus Dunaev . 86 3.22. The trial of Vitaliy Sobenko . 88 3.23. The trial of Andrei Tatarintsev . 89 3.24. The trial of Natalya Van Doyveren . 95 3.25. The trial of Pavel Volkov . 96 2 3.26. The trial of Kirill Vyshinsky . 102 3.27. The trial of Victor Yanukovych . 105 3.28. The trial of Oksana Yarmolovskaya . 108 3.29. The trial of Stanislav Yezhov . 109 3.30. The trial of Elena Zaitseva . 111 3.31. The trial of S. Zinchenko . 111 A. List of ECtHR cases used in the report 115 3 Abbreviations CPC Criminal Procedure Code ECHR Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EU European Union IM Interior Ministry IMF International Monetary Fund ISHR International Society for Human Rights ORDLO Particular Districts of Donetsk and Lugansk Regions OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe SBU Ukrainian Secret service UN United Nations 4 About the International Society for Human Rights The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and its national branches are independent non-governmental human rights organizations (NGOs) which base their work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. The ISHR seeks to promote international understanding and tolerance in all areas of culture and society. It is a non-profit organization, independent of all political parties, governments or religious groups. The ISHR acts on the philosophy that the realization of human rights and the improvement of social conditions cannot be pursued through the use of force. The ISHR was founded in 1972 to support individuals who share this principle and therefore seek to assert their rights in a non-violent manner. Our society has about 30 000 members in 38 countries. The ISHR has consultative status (Roster) at the United Nations ECOSOC, consultative status with the European Council, observer status at the Organisation of the African States and associated status with the Office of Public Information of the United Nations. The organization is mainly financed by donations and contributions. Priority areas of our work are: 1. Support of individuals or groups who are persecuted, imprisoned, and/or discriminated against; 2. Public relations in regards to human rights issues; 3. Education on human rights issues; 4. Humanitarian aid. 5 Introduction In 2019, the International Society for Human bar and the prosecutor's office remains as an Rights continued to monitor observation of important task. the right to a fair trial in Ukraine1. Since Monitoring, as a type of advocacy, helps to July, this work has been carried out as part of increase the transparency of the judicial pro- the project \Strengthening the rule of law in cess and is a means of observing the right to Ukraine" of the Ministry of Economic Develop- an open trial. During the monitoring period, ment and Cooperation of the Federal Republic we have repeatedly seen that the presence of of Germany. observers encourages the courts to improve Over the past year, we have managed to compliance with guarantees of a fair trial and significantly increase the amount of work. For build confidence in the proceedings. Litiga- the third year in a row, the number of reports tion monitoring, carried out in the form of prepared by the ISHR has been increasing. a long-term program, is becoming a unique In 2019, 114 court monitoring reports were diagnostic tool for the operation of key compo- published. For the second year in a row, the nents of the justice system. This is especially number of observed litigations is doubled (2017 relevant during the period of judicial reform { 9 trials, 2018 { 18 trials, 2019 { 42 trials) (see in Ukraine. In addition, according to OSCE Fig. 0.1). experts, trial monitoring programs are also an As positive result we consider not only effective mechanism for training and involving \quantitative indicators" for monitoring court lawyers and organizations in the process of cases, but also new opportunities arising from reforming justice systems2. the project \Strengthening the rule of law As in 2017 and 2018, observers at court in Ukraine". First of all, it is about working hearings remain the main form of monitoring meetings with judges, lawyers, prosecutors and conducted by the ISHR (the total time spent other representatives of target groups. For the by the ISHR observers in the courts in 2019 first half of the project year, from July to De- exceeds 260 hours or 33 full working days) cember 2019, we held seven round tables in six and the publication of court hearing reports. regions of Ukraine (Kiev, Kharkov, Poltava, The ISHR experts actively interacted with Zaporozhye, Zhytomyr, Lvov), on which we representatives of the bar and the court, ex- acquainted representatives of the local legal changed information during working meetings community with our work and plans for the and attending court hearings. When preparing future, discussed the problems faced by the our materials, we try to rely on official docu- judicial system. In total, these events covered ments (court decisions, petitions of the parties, 129 participants, including 26 judges and rep- etc.) provided by the parties of the trial. An resentatives of the judicial administration, 34 important part of this activity is communica- attorneys, 12 journalists, as well as represen- tion with the defendants and their relatives. tatives of the prosecutor's office, the OSCE, Monitoring materials are regularly published local authorities and the public. on the ISHR Internet resources, distributed In 2020 and 2021, another 14 events are among politicians and public figures of the EU planned within the framework of the project, countries, Ukrainian, European and American including two international conferences at lawyers and human rights defenders, represen- which the results of our work for 2019 and tatives of the OSCE monitoring mission in 2020 will be presented. Strengthening inter- Ukraine and other interested parties. action with representatives of the courts, the 1Work in this area was started in 2017. Details can 2p. 11 \Trial Monitoring: A Reference Manual for be found in the reports \Monitoring observation of Practitioners" Published by the OSCE Office the right to a fair trial in Ukraine. 2017" and \The for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights right to a fair trial in Ukraine. 2018" (ODIHR) Ul. Miodowa 10 00 -251 Warsaw Poland 6 50 120 100 40 80 30 60 trials 20 reports 40 10 20 0 0 2017 2018 2019 2017 2018 2019 Figure 0.1.: Dynamic of monitoring. In the annual report, we will once again The report consists of three parts: the first try to highlight the main negative trends in part { consideration of negative trends identi- the field of human rights violations identified fied in the field of legal proceedings, the second in the monitoring process and qualify them part { analysis of the collected statistical data based on sources of international human rights and the third part { reports on monitoring law { primarily the European Convention and the court hearings, which served as a source the ECtHR case law, and also analyze the in the preparation of the report itself.
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