On November 18 MP Yurii Karmazin made a sensational declaration in the Verkhovna Rada: he called upon the leaders of the state to take measures for the full-scale investigation of the crime against MP Oleksandr Yeliashkevych.
In particular, he emphasized: “On October 21, 2011 I announced my request to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Prosecutor General, Minister of Justice, Foreign Minister, Head of the Committee for the Organized Crime and Corruption concerning the measures taken in order to fulfill the numerous decisions by the PACE aimed at investigation of the attempted murder of the Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Yeliashkevych.”
This happened nearly 12 years ago, in the early 2000s, practically just after Leonid Kuchma was elected for his second term. It means that it happened much earlier than the world-known events: beating the public figure Oleksii Podolsky and the murder of Heorhii Gongadze.
So, what happened? Here is a fragment of the letter by the Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Yeliashkevych to the President of the PACE Lord Russell Johnston (June 21, 2001): “On February 9, 2000 at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada during the discussion of the referendum bills I made a suggestion to create a special parliamentary commission that would take the urgent measures to improve the legislation about the referendum in order to exclude the forgery of the expression of popular will and manipulation of the referendum results. This decision was endorsed by most of the parliamentary fractions and was planned to be voted on February 10 after I initiated it. In the evening on February 9, 2000 I was assaulted and received a closed craniocerebral injury, brain concussion, nose fracture, etc.”
This case is not less resonant than the abovementioned ones. It is also under the permanent control of the PACE. The Ukrainian media have written about many times. However, the guilty has not been found yet. Yeliashkevych wrote in his appeal: “I think that the assault was ordered by the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma that I declared immediately after I was assaulted.”
The rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee Hanne Severinsen and Renate Wohlwend met Yeliashkevych on September 11, 2001 in order to clarify all the circumstances. On September 27, 2001 the PACE adopted the resolution No. 1262, point 8.iii: “to initiate a special investigation in the case of Mr. Yeliashkevych, Deputy Chairman of the Financial Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.”
One more thing should be recalled. The fact concerning the attempt of the MP Yeliashkevych’s life as well as the facts concerning Podolsky and Gongadze is recorded on the Melnychenko tapes. Yeliashkevych wrote in the same appeal to the PACE: “The political motivation of the assault can be proved by the corresponding declaration of the former guard of the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma Mykola Melnychenko of November 16, 2000 and Leonid Kuchma’s dialog with an unknown person recorded by Melnychenko. This conversation demonstrated that Leonid Kuchma was dissatisfied with the fact that I had made a suggestion to initiate the impeachment procedure and to reject his bill on the Constitution amendment aimed at increasing the presidential powers. Kuchma told to his interlocutor that if I continued this work I would be beaten so that I would not be able to rise to my feet. This conversation took place on July 7, 2000, half a year later I had been assaulted.”
In September 2000 the Verkhovna Rada created a Temporary Investigating Commission for the progress of the investigation of criminal cases concerning the missing journalist H. Gongadze, public figure M. Boichyshyn, murders of MPs Y. Shcherban and V. Hetman, the attempted murder of MP V. Bortnik, assaults of MPs O. Yeliashkevych and V. Khara, kidnapping of MP V. Aliokhin’s son and the death of MPs V. Boiko, M. Miaskovsky, and S. Drahomaretsky (the name of this commission is the evidence of the scale of the then crimes). After hearing the information of the Temporary Investigating Commission, on January 10, 2002 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine resolved:
1. Consider necessary to fulfill in the first quarter of 2002 the requirements of the PACE resolution of September 27, 2001 on meeting the commitments of Ukraine, in particular: speed up and finish the investigation of disappearance and murder of Heorhii Gongadze or initiate, if necessary, a new independent investigation with the help of international experts; initiate a special investigation of the assault and battery of MP O. Yeliashkevych, Deputy Chairman of the Financial Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.
2. Build 500,000 hryvnias into the state budget of Ukraine for 2002 (2905-14) for the European experts named by the European Council to examine the “Taraschanske” body and the recordings in the cabinet of the Ukrainian president concerning H. Gongadze, O. Yeliashkevych and O. Podolsky. (The resolution is taken from the official website of the Verkhovna Rada.)
The tapes were examined in the US by the American expert Bruce Koening and the company “BEK TEK” and were found authentic. Therefore, on February 20, 2002 Yeliashkevych held a press conference and declared that he had sued the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to the international courts for the attempted murder. Later in March the MP blocked the tribune in the Verkhovna Rada for several days requiring putting to the vote the question of a special session on the results of the American expertise of the tapes.
On April 16, 2002 because of danger to his life Yeliashkevych had to go to the US where he received the political asylum. Oleksandr Yeliashkevych is the one Ukrainian politician who managed to get the political asylum in the US over the years of independence of Ukraine. He received this status because of danger to his life from the President Leonid Kuchma. The then power silently swallowed it and did not express any protests to the US; the arguments Yeliashkevych presented in the US were so convincing that Kuchma and his environment were afraid of any public remarks about it.
On April 26, 2002 the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv held a trial without the sufferer or his representatives (was the victim of the crime unwanted?) and delivered the verdict that a certain V.Vorobei was guilty of the crime against Yeliashkevych.
As we can see, the reprisal of Yeliashkevych was nearly the same that against Podolsky and Gongadze. The motifs were the same: the oppositionist professional activity. The preparation of these and many other actions became known from Melnychenko’s tapes. Without them the large public would not have known about it. Here is a fragment of Oleksii Podolsky’s interview to Den (No. 142, August 14, 2009):
“I do not believe that Gongadze was killed because of the tapes. There was so much recorded on them that they should have killed a lot of people. The next day after I had been kidnapped I wrote an application to the police and indicated that, in my opinion, I had been kidnapped by the police instructed by Kravchenko and Kuchma. Then, three days later we wrote a public declaration in which we listed all the crimes against ‘Ukrainska Perspektyva’ [The Ukrainian Prospect. – Ed.] and still have not got any reply form the Prosecutor General’s Office. Gongadze was still alive back then and there were not any tapes. I do not think it was a rehearsal; it was a banal reprisal of the opponents. They wanted to scare the whole of our team. They did it with other my colleagues. For example, they shot Odarych [Serhii Odarych, one of the active participants of the charitable foundation “Ukrainska Perspektyva” in the late 1990s – early 2000s, now the mayor of Cherkasy. – Author] at his feet from the distance of two meters, it is clear why they did it since they could strike him from this distance. The most terrible happened to our Sasha Yakymenko [Oleksandr Yakymenko, Chairman of the Donetsk branch of the human rights organization “We,” killed in 2000 in Donetsk. – Author] who was burned down alive in his car next to his home to the order of the Donetsk prosecutor.”
Meanwhile, the PACE permanently controlled the situation around the resonant crime against Yeliashkevych and made numerous decisions concerning it. In particular, its resolution No. 1346 of September 29, 2003 (point 5) and the resolution No. 1466 of October 15, 2005 (points 10, 13, and 16) touched upon this topic: “the Ukrainian authorities have also failed, so far, to implement the provisions of the Assembly’s resolutions requesting a new investigation into the Yeliashkevych case and a credible examination of the Melnychenko recordings” as well as the resolution No. 1645 of January 27, 2009 (points 10, 11.1, 11.3): “the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office to use all possible ways of investigation to identify those who instigated and organized the high-profile crimes, such as this committed against Verkhovna Rada deputy O. S. Yeliashkevych.”
What does the disregard of the PACE resolutions concerning the case of Yeliashkevych mean for the Ukrainian power? There is a fact of the cruel crime against a statesman recorded by the law-enforcement agencies and medicine. There are the Melnychenko recordings denouncing those who ordered this crime. There are other evidences proving the guilt of the people who really ordered this crime. Now there is even the information about falsifying a criminal case with a false criminal and false motivation of the crime (Karmazin’s request to the abovementioned people reads: “I found out that in 2006 V. Vorobei officially admitted that he had to accept the blame for the crime he had not committed instructed by the officials of the law-enforcement agencies. Vorobei revealed the names, ranks and positions of these people”). There was a prompt trial without the sufferer or his representative and the confession of the suborned criminal that he had accepted the blame for this crime instructed by certain officials. It is unconceivable from the point of the European standards of human rights protection. Probably, the European institutions will be shocked to find out that the Ukrainian power, regardless of its color, has been disregarding their decisions concerning the specific resonant criminal cases over 10 years.
MP Yeliashkevych actively and convincingly criticized Kuchma is public not only from the parliamentary tribune. According to Karmazin, he would have made a brilliant political career, but…
How did the high-ranking officials react to Karmazin’s request? We asked its author about it:
“Mykola Azarov did not react at all. He, probably, does not know that the head of government is responsible for everything happening in the state. It is provided by the Constitution, the law on the Council Cabinet and all the international agreements Ukraine signs. The prime minister has to know that he has to report if the PACE makes a decision concerning Ukraine. Not the president, but the head of government. However, for some reason Azarov considers it to be the concern of the Prosecutor General’s Office. No, the Prosecutor General’s Office has to investigate the case. That is why by passing the request to the Prosecutor General’s Office he reacted indecently. Thus we once again disgraced ourselves in front of the Council of Europe that we did not solve the crime against MP Yeliashkevych.
“In my opinion, the work of this structure is unsatisfactory, too. It is absolutely clear that the person convicted of this crime did not commit it. It was clear from the very beginning. He was made to accept the crime he had not committed. Later he admitted it to the Prosecutor Generals’ Office investigators. There was no political will to completely investigate it. Today it is still absent. I wonder how they can open the 10th or 11th case against Yulia Tymoshenko without investigating the crimes controlled by the PACE. Kuzmin is responsible for the special investigations at the Prosecutor General’s Office but he violates the presumption of innocence and indicates the crimes Tymoshenko committed (though they have to be indicated in the verdict). He would better tell about the investigation of the attempted murder of the oppositionist MP Yeliashkevych, especially in Europe where Kuzmin went to report. What has been done in this concern?”
Have the other addressees reacted to your requests?
“Not yet. The ministers I sent the requests to probably do not fully understand what every ministry has to do in this concern not to mention the ‘progress’ of the foreign policy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to control the decisions of the PACE. This ministry as well as the Ministry of Justice has to react at it. And the prime minister has to keep them on the alert.”
What will your further actions be?
“I have sent the letters to all the participants of the Ukrainian delegation at the PACE. One of their tasks is to control this case and report about it to Europe in the name of our country. How can it be that the PACE has repeatedly discussed it and made numerous decisions and in Ukraine nobody needs it?
“I studied Melnychenko’s tapes in detail comprising those that have never been published. In this concern I have a lot of questions about the crime against Yeliashkevych. I realized that this crime has not been investigated at all. Besides, I know very well what the time was back then and what happened; Yeliashkevych and I were MPs of the second and third convocation, but I have never thought that nothing will be done and nobody will investigate this crime and that they will hurl into fighting the opposition… Of course, it is a resonant case…”
So, why do you think the Ukrainian politicians do not understand it?
“Neither the Prosecutor General’s Office, nor the ministries or any other structures obey me. However, I am the vice-premier of the oppositionist government and I look at it from this prospective. If I were a member of the current government I would make them work. There are no mysteries; they have been unmasked long time ago. That is why we have to get the answer to the question: what officials ordered to falsify this case?”
In your opinion, what steps should be taken further?
“They should initiate a new investigation proceeding from the new circumstances. The prior sentence to a person that does not have anything to do with it has to be recalled. This step should be initiated by the Prosecutor Generals’ Office. The court will not do it. The Prosecutor General’s Office has to examine the case papers since they just do not wash. How can it be that Yeliashkevych, the sufferer, was not interrogated at the court? Is this OK? Not to mention that they have ruined his life. By the way, he is the resident of Ukraine; he was not naturalized in the US. That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the president and the government have to care about him. The Prosecutor General’s Office has to examine the circumstances of this case and suggest recalling the sentence. Then they have to cooperate with SBU [Security Service of Ukraine. – Ed.] to find all the police workers involved into the so-called investigation of this crime, I mean, the falsification of it, and they have to be prosecuted. They also have to find out who ordered to falsify it and, it is essential, who ordered the assault against Yeliashkevych. The special department at the Prosecutor General’s Office has to deal with this case since it was an assault and attempted murder of a statesman. However, we can see that the power has changed twice but nothing has been done. They even brought an action against the former president Kuchma, so they make serious things public, but… I want to believe that they want to achieve some result. And the main result has to be establishing the truth... ”
Why does the current government that has nothing to do with these crimes need it? Since its connivance of the attempts by Kuchma’s supporters to hide, distort and falsify these crimes involves it into Kuchma’s team’s dictatorial actions. Now it is impossible to hush up the problem voiced from the high parliamentary tribune. On the other hand, it is a good opportunity for the power (and the journalists who protested against the impunity) to practically demonstrate their principal European choice and respect of the European standards concerning the human rights protection and the judicial system.
Yurii Karmazin has recently sent another deputy’s request to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka.
