These days Ukraine has seen an invasion of human rights advocates from Russia: Ilya Novikov, Dokka Itslayev, Marina Dubrovina, and Aleksandr Popkov. They are lawyers who defend Ukrainians illegally detained and unfairly charged with murder and terrorism in the Russian Federation. The names of their clients are Mykola Karpiuk, Stanislav Klykh (both tried in one case) and Hennadii Afanasiev. The lawyers gather evidence of their clients’ innocence and talk to Ukrainian diplomats and officers of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry. In Ukraine they are assisted by the Center for Civil Liberties, an NGO that co-initiated the campaign Let My People Go, aimed to help the Kremlin’s prisoners.
“WE FEEL A LACK OF ACTIVITY ON THE PART OF UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES”
Dokka ITSLAYEV, Mykola Karpiuk’s attorney:
“Now we are carrying out important work in Ukraine on gathering evidence to prove the innocence of Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh. This evidence is a real chance to complete the trial in Chechnya in favor of our clients. In Grozny, their fate will be decided by the jury. Pressurizing the jurors still remains likely, but so far we have no facts. Therefore, as a lawyer, I cannot say with certainty that there has been pressure.
“On the part of Ukrainian authorities we feel a lack of activity in Mykola and Stanislav’s case. When criminal proceedings against them were opened in Russia, the Russian investigator sent an inquiry to Ukraine. Among other things, it included a request to provide evidence of their participation or non-participation in the war in Chechnya. The inquiry was sent in June 2015. There never came an official reaction from Ukraine. Meanwhile, between December 1994 and April 1995, Karpiuk often held media briefings in Rivne. There were journalists present who saw him there. If they gave proper evidence, it would help considerably. Klykh was at the time a university student, and his former instructors and fellow students could confirm that. I might be wrong, but I have an impression that someone in Ukraine is interested in working up tension around Karpiuk and other Ukrainians arrested in Russia.”
“THEY ARE WORKING HARD TO MAKE SURE HENNADII NEVER WALKS OUT OF PRISON”
Aleksandr POPKOV, Hennadii Afanasiev’s attorney:
“Hennadii is indeed in a fix. He has virtually antagonized Russia’s Federal Security Service. The ‘brave CheKa’ men first tortured him into giving false evidence implicating Sentsov, and later, in court, he dared retract his confession. What followed was a cruel vengeance. Hennadii was told that he was going ‘to Polar bears.’ He was indeed transported to the north [to the Komi Republic. – Author]. They keep maltreating him, albeit more or less within the framework of legislation.
“Although Hennadii was sentenced to seven years, I think they will not let him just do his time in peace. They are working hard to make sure he never walks out of prison. Hennadii spent three days and nights in the punishment cell, now he is being transferred to a maximum security unit. He has already got four penalties. The first was for a blade, which they allegedly found on him. The rest are similarly stupid: for instance, for missing a PT exercise (which is never held, by the way).
“We have submitted an appeal. But it could be turned down, because my client had admitted his guilt. Hennadii has chosen for a path of resistance and is prepared to stand through everything, but he does hope that Ukraine will help him. He has given me several documents, in particular, petitions to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he asks for assistance. International community could also employ certain legal instruments with a view to extradition. However, until now it has been hard to see what Ukraine is capable of, and what it is prepared to do. We defend Hennadii, but Ukraine, too, must stand up for its citizen.”
“IN COURT, STANISLAV SHOWED TRACES OF TORTURE ON HIS BODY”
Marina DUBROVINA, Stanislav Klykh’s attorney:
“Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh were already interrogated in front of the jury. Mykola testified first, and the jurors followed with interest his account of his life in 1994-95. However, the earlier testimonies were also published, extorted under torture and pressure. In court, Stanislav showed traces of torture on his body. We also attached medical conclusion, which proved that these were actually scars and marks left by application of electric current. We petitioned the court to extract the protocols of interrogation under coercion, but the court refused. A couple of days ago we applied for medical expert examination to identify the nature of injuries suffered by Mykola and Stanislav, after which the panel retreated to the conference room.
“We hope that the court will agree to hold a medical examination to identify the origin of marks on Mykola’s and Stanislav’s bodies. But the hope is ephemeral: until now virtually all petitions submitted by the defense have been turned down.”
“THIS WILL BE NO SPEEDY TRIAL”
Ilya NOVIKOV, Mykola Karpiuk’s attorney:
“I have met Vitalii Kasko, deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, responsible for the correspondence with the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia. He promised that certain records would be sent to Russia very soon. We were also promised that Ukraine’s Interior Ministry would open a criminal proceeding in the matter of crimes committed against our clients. Real indictment is not in sight but you can only gather evidence and get access to materials if a criminal case is opened. The Security Service of Ukraine is carrying out its own investigation in the framework of its competence, and has already interrogated several persons.
NOVEMBER 8, 2015, SOFIYSKA SQUARE, KYIV. PEOPLE CAME HERE TO MARK HENNADII AFANASIEV’S 25th BIRTHDAY. THEY BROUGHT GIFTS TO THE PRISONER, SUCH AS BOOKS, SWEETS, AND POSTCARDS, AND SANG HIM WISHES FOR LONG LIFE / UKRINFORM photo
“It is also clear that Mykola and Stanislav’s will be no speedy trial. We began the procedure of the trial from selecting the jury (in Russia, there are 12 of them). Also, we picked eight spare jurors. The peculiarity of legal processes in Russia is that if the spare jurors are gone and the jury contains fewer than 12 members, the whole procedure is launched anew. Now risks are high that the first go at the process could be blank. The jurors scurry away. Now we only have four spare ones. Political pressure has nothing to do with it, people simply get sick.”
The Day’s FACT FILE
Mykola KARPIUK and Stanislav KLYKH have been in detention on the territory of the Russian Federation for 18 and 12 months, respectively. Both stand accused of participation in warfare on the territory of the Chechen Republic in 1994-95, in particular, of killings of Russian troops and setting up a criminal gang. They face at least 15 years behind the bars, or a life term in the worst case. Due to the petition of the defense, the case is tried by the jury at the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic in Grozny.
Crimea-based photographer Hennadii AFANASIEV was detained in Simferopol in May 2014 and sentenced past summer in Moscow to seven years at a maximum security prison on charges of terrorism. Afanasiev was a witness in the case of Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko and repudiated his testimony against them, citing cruel torture as method of obtaining evidence. Nearly a month ago, Afanasiev was transported to maximum security penitentiary colony No. 25 in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic.
