Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists will raise the money required to hold an impartial hearing of the case of Ihor Aleksandrov’s murder, provided it is held without further delay, reads an open letter to Oleksandr Kondratiev, presiding judge of the Donetsk Oblast Court of appeal, and Judge Ivan Karchysty, signed by Union of Journalists President Ihor Lubchenko. The Day received this letter on January 8. It followed a statement by Judge Karchysty to the effect that the hearing of the case against Yury Verediuk accused of assault and battery of Ihor Aleksandrov, director of Slovyansk’s TOR Television Company, which led to the journalist’s death, will be held on September 11, 2002.
“In an attempt to support his decision, Judge Karchysty attributed it to a ‘difficult situation’ with hearings in oblast courts, which is due to ‘lack of funds to commission staff.’ ‘Fuel shortages’ make it impossible to escort defendants,” the letter reads. Thus, the Journalists Union head believes this to be “a flagrant attempt to shelve the case” which is under supervision of the President of Ukraine. The official prosecution case is treated with great skepticism. However, if it is disproved, the case will have to be further investigated. “If our much-vaunted Pinkertons and Sherlock Holmeses failed to ascertain the truth in hot pursuit, they will not do it now after so much time has elapsed,” the letter reads. Ihor Lubchenko has called on Vitaly Boiko, head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, and Serhiy Kivalov, head of the Supreme Council of Justice, to take Kondratiev and Karchysty to task for deferring the hearing of the Aleksandrov case.
