If students of law want to know what a politically motivated show trial looks like they need not look into history books. All they have to do is observe what is going on in Kyiv's Pechersky District Court where former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko is being tried..
Yesterday [Tuesday] the presiding judge made no insistence that witnesses attend the court in person to provide testimony that could be be subjected to scrutiny. Instead, he merely "read out more than 20 out of nearly 40 protocols of the interrogation of witnesses who gave evidence during pre-trial investigation at the Prosecutor General's Office and those who said that they could not attend court sessions for various reasons and circumstances."
Many, perhaps most of the 80 or more witnesses that have already given evidence in the courtroom either revoked testimonies they provided to prosecutors, or complained they were coerced into giving misleading evidence.
The entire case has become a parody of legal procedure. The judge is now deliberately bulldozing the trial in order to reach a verdict and sentencing before Lutsenko's case is heard in the European Court of Human Rights in a few weeks time.
[Read more here]
And also from 'ForeignNotes' here and here about how the judge is being blackmailed to give the 'correct' verdict.
p.s. Video from TVi's 'Znak Oklyku' on the Ukrainian Prosecutors' banal and blatant misuse of its powers to coerce witnesses, grooming of witnesses, and invention of false evidence to enable Lutsenko's closest circle to be hounded here
1 comment:
How and on what basis can lutsenko's case be considered by the ECHR when he has not exaughsted all his appel rights in Ukraine let alone been convicted.? If you read the ECHR charter they are denied authority until the appellant rights have been excersized, the same situation exists with Tymoshenko. Whilst I agree that Lutsenko's trial is a farce and a clear case of denial of justice the system in this case works against him. He most certainly should not have been detained and imprisoned for the last 12 months. he should have been fee on bail or at the most placed under house arrest. All reports avaialble indicate that there is not a case to answer.
If anyone should be tied and convicted for misuse and abuse of public office it is Yushchenko. it wasnYushchenko who initiated the allegations and charges against Tymoshenko and other members of the opposition. There is more than enough evidence to have Yushchenko charged and convicted of this offense.
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