“Automaidan” case being ruined – lawyer

Only one judgment, though already repealed, has been delivered in the cases over harassment of activists, who had been picketing the Yanukovych’s residence. Meanwhile, there are already six acquittals in respect of the persons who harassed the Automaidan activists.

Roman Maselko, member of the Attorney’s Advisory Panel Board, dealing with the Automaidan cases investigation said this, the Human Rights Information Center correspondent reports.

Maselko reminds that more than 600 reports and protocols were falsified against the Automaidan activists and the massive judgments were delivered resulting in depriving 300 people of driver’s license or fines for them. About 450 grass-roots level traffic police officers and about 126 judges from Kyiv, Kyiv region and other regions were involved in the process.

“A great number of people, very good evidence base, they are not on the run, basic things. As a result we have not a single sentence. About 50 cases have been submitted to the court. But the court simply returns indictments back to the prosecutor’s office as they are allegedly drawn up improperly. The prosecutor’s office returns them back, in turn, almost in the same form, and so on. It has been going on for almost a year,” the lawyer said.

Last year, the majority of cases against traffic police officers have been closed, any attempts of the lawyers to do something take no effect. After the protest action had been held near the Prosecutor General’s Office, the cases were resumed and even suspicion was announced against one person, former head of Sviatoshynsky district traffic police department. The case was submitted to the court a month later. In December, he was sentenced to one year in prison and one year of probation over forgery of administrative protocols.  As of now, the sentence has been repealed.

After the only sentence in the Automaidan cases was repealed, the indictment has been periodically returned to the prosecutor’s office for revision.

At the same time, according to the lawyers, there are currently six acquittals in respect of the persons suspected of harassment against the Automaidan activists.

The lawyer admits that the cases are really often delayed, but at the same time the cases shouldn’t be quickly submitted to the court as they will be simply “ruined” there.  

Photo: socportal.info