Maidan cases move slowly, lawyers unhappy with RRB investigation

The Ukrainian authorities at different times have qualified the investigation of the Maidan cases as an unconditional priority. At the same time, there are few real achievements in this process, as well as condemnations for those responsible for the tragic events of the winter of 2014. What has changed on the seventh anniversary of the start of the protests – in the material of RBC-Ukraine.

Ukraine on November 21 will celebrate the Day of Dignity and Freedom. It was on this day, seven years ago, that the first protesters gathered in the center of Kiev. Their demonstrations ended not only with the collapse of the Viktor Yanukovych regime, but also with the death of nearly a hundred protesters.

Almost all the political forces that have been in power for the past seven years have spoken of unsatisfactory results in the Maidan cases and demanded that the investigations be intensified. At the same time, these statements did not always coincide with the actions of the politicians themselves.

So, in late December 2019, the Ukrainian authorities made strong concessions during another detainee exchange with Russia. The key people involved in the case of the execution of the Heroes of the Hundred Celestial, the soldiers of the “black company” of the special forces of Berkut, were released. This fact postponed the trial indefinitely.

Furthermore, it was during the past year that the body that deals with Maidan’s affairs changed. From the special department of the Attorney General’s Office, these functions were transferred to the investigators of the State Bureau of Investigations. These changes inevitably influenced the progress of the “Maidan affairs.”

Big problems

Maidan’s lawyers call the exchange of “Berkut members” the hardest blow to the investigation. According to them, the case of the shooting of protesters on February 20, 2014 was nearing its logical end, and by the end of this year the court planned to pronounce sentence on the former Berkut combatants.

“Trends are bad (in the investigation of the Maidan cases, – ed.), because we have in fact completed the investigation of the main case of the murders on the Maidan. In reality, it is blocked by the actions of the authorities, who extradited the main defendants. This case has been stopped and has no opportunity to continue, “Pavel Dykan, lawyer for the Heroes of the Hundred Celestial families, told RBC-Ukraine.

The jury trial in the capital’s Svyatoshinsky district court has yet to decide how to continue the process, when three of the five accused “Berkut members” disappeared from the field of vision of Ukrainian law enforcement officials. So far, Oleg Yanishevsky, Pavel Abroskin and Sergei Zinchenko have been included in the wanted list. On November 25, the court must decide whether it is possible to initiate a default trial against them.

The defendants’ lawyers say their clients want to return to Ukraine, but cannot due to problems with documents.

“They were sent there (in ORDLO, – ed.) without any documents, and to return to Ukraine, you must obtain a permit from the SBU. But to submit an application for this permit, you must attach a passport. And they don’t have it, “lawyer Alexander Goroshinsky explained to the publication.

He denies that Berkut members are in Russia. Earlier, Abroskin and Zinchenko, in an interview, declared their desire to go to the Russian Federation and take Russian citizenship. At the same time, the defender Goroshinsky claims that they are still in the uncontrolled part of Donbass.

A RBC-Ukraine source at the Attorney General’s Office said that Ukrainian law enforcement officials are now actively seeking to declare “Berkut members” on the international wanted list. And supposedly there are already “positive steps” in this direction.

In addition to the situation with the Berkut case, lawyers for Euromaidan activists recall another problem that has arisen over the past year. In early June, the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to bring judges to justice for unfair decisions.

According to this article, the “representatives of Themis”, who made important decisions during the Maidan, are on trial. Despite the fact that legally the decision of the Constitutional Court will not take effect until December 11, the process of rehabilitation of the “Maidan judges” has already begun and is actively continuing.

Then, on June 30, the former judge of the Pechersky District Court, Oksana Tsarevich, was acquitted, and on August 26, her colleague Svetlana Volkova. The first, during protests, deprived Automaidan activists of their driving licenses and the second, in September 2014, released Dmitry Sadovnik, the commander of the black company “Berkut”, from arrest. He fled to Russia and, according to law enforcement officials, has already received Russian citizenship. The investigation against him in Ukraine is carried out in absentia.

The next judge, who will be acquitted in the near future, may be another former representative of the Pechersk court, Viktor Kitsyuk.

Small advances

Since 2020, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has been exclusively charged with investigating cases related to protests during the Revolution of Dignity. This is because at the end of November last year, the Attorney General’s Office lost the right to conduct an investigation.

With this in mind, the “Maidan cases” were transferred from the GPU to the Office of State Security. Likewise, some of the former employees of the Office of the Prosecutor who were previously involved in these processes were transferred to a specially created department.

The State Office, in response to an inquiry from RBC-Ukraine, reported that they were investigating 80 cases related to the events on the Maidan. In addition, three criminal proceedings refer to the death of security agents during the protests.

During the year, 34 people were brought to justice, 82 suspects are on the wanted list. For the most part, former prosecutors and investigators, who in 2013-2014 called for the arrest of Maidan members, became the “new” suspects in RRB cases.

In addition to them, two ex-combatants from the special unit “Omega” of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of the Interior are under investigation. They are suspected in the premeditated murder of two Heroes of the Hundred Celestials on Institutskaya Street on February 20, 2014.

At the same time, the attorneys for the victims’ families do not consider the work of the State Investigations Bureau to be particularly effective.

“Yes, these suspicions are made known, mainly to investigators and prosecutors, but it must be understood that for many crimes the deadline to bring to justice has already expired (I am referring to a statute of limitations of five years for crimes of medium gravity, – ed.) “, – explained the lawyer Dikan.

In addition, the lawyer pointed out that the transfer of materials to the RRT and the familiarization of the investigators with them took almost six months. In their opinion, this did not have the best effect on the quality and timing of the investigation of the cases.

His opponents on the defense side of the accused also do not see the effective work of the RRB in this direction.

“The investigation of the Maidan cases, as it was” dead weight “, is still worth it. Nothing has changed since his transfer to the RRB. As there was no objective investigation, then there is no”, – said lawyer Goroshinsky, who he also acts as a defender for Yanukovych.

At the same time, the former president’s lawyers succeeded on November 16 in the cancellation of his arrest in absentia in the Maidan dispersal case.

The head of the profiling department of the Attorney General’s Office Alexei Donskoy does not consider the consequences of this decision catastrophic. According to him, the court probably found a technical error in the decision to arrest the suspect, and not significant procedural violations.

“Here we cannot speak of the absence of an international wanted list or the status of a suspect in Yanukovych. Probably, the Court of Appeal found a technical error, for example, when establishing the arrest period, which will have to be corrected after a new examination in the trial court, “the prosecutor said in a comment to RBC. Ukraine.

Donskoy explained that the decision to arrest Yanukovych in absentia is necessary to initiate an in absentia investigation against him and then transfer the accusation to court.

The head of the Attorney General’s department refused to assess how active or slowed down work on the “Maidan” cases over the past year. At the same time, a source of the publication among the employees of this unit pointed out that for the first time in the years of their work, the leadership of the Attorney General’s Office does not interfere, but rather promotes investigations.

“I am afraid to curse him, but there has never been so much assistance for our department as now from the leadership of the Attorney General’s Office. Now there is complete freedom of action, all documents are signed and agreed very quickly. It is even difficult to say with what can be connected. Perhaps the GPU leadership is afraid “public discontent”, – said the interlocutor from RBC-Ukraine.

He added that the leadership of the Attorney General’s Office, after the situation with the exchange of “berkutovtsy”, no longer intervened in the personnel problems of the department and did not block their work.

At the same time, the source is concerned about the situation with the RRB colleagues: the frequent shifting and downsizing of investigators, as well as the fact that his boss in the “Maidan” department has turned into a person who had never before been involved in such investigations.

Prosecutors greeted the upcoming anniversary of Euromaidan’s launch with moderate optimism. A different frame of mind between the lawyers of the Heroes of the Hundred Heaven and the defenders of the accused.

“Over the past year, one thing is clear: no one needs the Maidan cases. And, first of all, the authorities,” concludes Pavel Dikan, attorney for the Hundred Celestials families.

His colleague from the opposite camp, Alexander Goroshinsky, is certain that the Ukrainian authorities do not want to “establish the truth” in the Maidan’s affairs.