26 February CRIMINA L CASE Representatives of 6 organizations from 4 countries worked together on drafting Part 1 of the Report “Recon- struction and legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 outside the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol”, namely: Kirill Koroteev �The Human Rights Center “Memorial”, Russia Roman Martynovskyy �Regional Centre for Human Rights, Ukraine Sergey Ostaf �Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO), Moldova Vadim Pivovarov �Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement, Ukraine Olga Salomatova �Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland Daria Svyrydova �Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Ukraine Aleksandr Sedov �Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Ukraine Sergey Shvets �Association of Ukrainian Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement, Ukraine Vladimir Yavorskiy �independent expert in the field of freedom of peaceful assembly, Ukraine-Belarus “Report of the International Expert Group. “26 February criminal case”. Part 1. Reconstruction and legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 outside the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol”/ Edited by: R. Martynovskyy, D. Svyrydova. - Kiev, 2017. – 100 p. This Report presents the results of work of the International Expert Group on the so-called “26 February criminal case”, namely: reconstruction and legal analysis of the events that took place on 26 February 2014 outside the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol, and their consequences. On that day, two people perished and several other protesters were injured during two rallies organized by the party “Russian Unity” and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. The report also contains conclusions and recommendations of the expert group addressed to the authorities of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, non-governmental and international organizations. The report will be useful to all those who are interested in issues related to observance of international human rights standards. © Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, 2017 REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERT GROUP 26 FEBRUARY CRIMINAL CASE Part 1. Reconstruction and legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 outside the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol GLOSSARY ARC Autonomous Republic of Crimea ODIHR Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights SCARC, SC of the AR of Crimea Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea VRU Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) of Ukraine CPHRFF Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms EU European Union ECtHR European Court of Human Rights MIA Ministry of Internal Affairs SDPU “Self-Defense Paramilitary Unit”, “People’s Militia of Crimea”, “Self- defense of Crimea” OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe UN United Nations Organization RF Russian Federation SSU Security Service of Ukraine USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics CC Criminal Code CPC Criminal Procedural Code FZ Federal Law FKZ Federal Constitutional Law 4 CONTENTS Glossary ....................................................................................04 Introduction .................................................................................. 07 Methodology of the Study .................................................................... 10 Section 1. Reconstruction and legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 ..................12 1.1. General description and background of the events .......................................12 1.2. Key individuals and groups that participated in the events ...............................16 1.3. Reconstruction of the events of 26 February 2014 ........................................26 Episode 1. Gathering of rallyers, designation of positions (8:00-11:10) ............................26 Episode 2. First clashes (11:10-13:00) ............................................................33 Episode 3. Escalation of confrontation in the inner yard in front of the Supreme Council of the ARC (13:00-15:00) .....................................43 Episode 4. Culmination: the beginning of extraordinary session of the SC ARC, peak tension of the situation in the inner yard. Aggravation of the conflict, occupation of the inner yard by the “pro-Ukrainian” rallyers, breaking into the SC ARC building (15:10-15:50) ...............................................50 Episode 5. Partial withdrawal of the rallyers from the inner yard in front of the SC ARC, occupation of positions in the inner yard by the pro-Russian activists (15:50-17:00) ....59 Section 2. Investigation of the events of 26 February 2014 ...................................... 63 2.1. Investigation of the events by law enforcement agencies of Ukraine ......................63 2.2. Criminal prosecution of some participants of the events pursuant to the legislation of the Russian Federation.............................................. 65 2.3. Procedures for qualification and protection of the rights of A. Chiygoz in connection with criminal prosecution following the events of 26 February .............71 Section 3. Legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 ......................................72 3.1. Jurisdiction, compliance with the principle of “no punishment without law” ..............72 3.2. Legal Regulation of the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly ...................................78 3.2.1. Organization of peaceful assembly .......................................................78 3.2.2. The «peacefulness» of the assembly and the comply with the «requirements of public order» .............................................................................................................................................................81 3.2.3. State’s positive obligations, legal regulation of police actions .............................84 3.2.4. Qualification of events, liability of the organizers and rallyers .............................89 General conclusions and recommendations ...................................................94 5 SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA 6 INTRODUCTION THIS DOCUMENT is the Part 1 of the International Expert Group Report on the “26 February criminal case” and contains reconstruction and legal analysis of the events of 26 February 2014 outside the building of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol, when two rallies organized by the party “Russian Unity” and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People were held. The reason for the rallies was the decision of the Chairperson of the ARC SC Vladimir Konstanti- nov to hold an extraordinary session including possible consideration of the status of the Crimean peninsula. The rallies were followed by the clashes resulting in the stampede in which two people perished and several other protesters were injured. Subsequently, law enforcement agencies of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings on the facts of deaths and physical injuries. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, UN agencies, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court1 estimated further devel- opments in Crimea as occupation and subsequent illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula. There is no doubt that starting from 21 March 2014 the Russian Federation carried out all forms of the effective control2 over the territory of the Crimean peninsula. In connection with the actual change of jurisdiction from the Ukrainian law to the legislation of the RF starting from the spring of 2014, the above criminal proceedings were continued by law enforcement agencies of Crimea created after the annexation, and requalified in accordance with the RF legislation. Since January 2015 the investigation of these events was conducted in Crimea in the framework of criminal pro- ceedings on the organization and participation in mass riots (Art. 212 of the RF CC). Totally, several Crimean Tatars have been indicted in connection with this case3. The consequences of the events of February 26 outside the ARC SC in Simferopol and their impli- cations for human rights preconditioned the creation and work of the International Expert Group. THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERT GROUP was formed on the basis of the decision taken in December 2015 by the civil society organizations from three countries (Moldova, Poland, Ukraine). The follow- ing organizations decided to create the group: the Regional Center for Human Rights; the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO); the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union; the Helsinki Founda- tion for Human Rights. 1 Resolution of the UN General Assembly of 27 March 2014 http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/ RES/68/262&referer=/english/&Lang=R http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/ENACARegion/Pages/UAReports.aspx Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - 1988 (2014)1 https://goo.gl/O13sIQ Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE “On the Continuation of Clear, Gross and Uncorrected Violations of OSCE Commitments and International Norms by the Russian Federation” https://goo.gl/f9QOqDhttp://www.osce.org/ru/odihr/180601?download=true Annual report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of 14 November 2016 https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-repPE_ENG.pdf https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-rep-PE-Ukraine.pdf 2 https://rg.ru/2014/03/22/krim-site-dok.html http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20605