MOSCOW, Russia -- The crime was shocking enough: an 18-year-old woman gang-raped, half strangled, set on fire and left for dead.
ut what sent hundreds of Ukrainians into the streets and rushing to her hospital to give blood this month was a police decision to free two suspects rumored to be politically connected.
The uproar has shaken the upper echelons of Ukraine’s government.
On Thursday, three weeks after the attack, the young woman died.
Viktor F. Yanukovich, the president, and Nikolai Azarov, the prime minister, were among the first to offer condolences — along with vows that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
“I will press law enforcement agencies to investigate and obtain a just punishment,” Mr. Azarov wrote on his blog.
“No compromises. Only with the knowledge that punishment is inevitable will these monsters fear to encroach on people’s lives and rights.”
Whether they will succeed in calming the outrage is unclear.
Doctors said the young woman, Oksana Makar, suffered serious burns to about 55 percent of her body and had severe internal injuries.
One of her arms was amputated.
She was able to give at least one videotaped interview, her blond hair matted and blue eyes straining against what she described as excruciating pain.
For Ukrainians transfixed by her ordeal, she came to embody long-simmering animosities over government impotence and impunity for the privileged in this former Soviet nation.
It was only after the street protests and Mr. Yanukovich’s personal intervention that the police in the small southern town of Nikolayev re-arrested the young men.
On Thursday, they and a third jailed suspect were officially charged with murder.
The men met Ms. Makar at a cafe in Nikolayev on the evening of March 9, according to prosecutors.
After a few drinks, she agreed to go with them back to one of their apartments.
They continued to drink.
At some point, Ms. Makar complained of not feeling well and went to lie down in the bedroom.
“After that they came to their criminal intention: to rape her,” Yuri V. Boychenko, a spokesman for the prosecutor general’s office, said by telephone.
“After they committed this act, they were worried that she would go to the police, and to avoid this — all were in a state of intoxication — took further steps.”
The men, he said, tried to strangle Ms. Makar with a cord, leaving her barely conscious.
Then they wrapped her in a blanket and dragged her to a nearby construction site, where they set her on fire.
She was discovered the next morning, still conscious, by a passing motorist.
It is not clear why the police initially freed two of the suspects.
Investigators maintain that they lacked enough evidence to hold them.
Rumors quickly spread that the parents of the two, both in their 20s, had ties to the local government.
Officials confirmed that one, Maksim Prisyazhnyuk, is the adopted son of a former chairwoman in a regional legislature.
The perception that the men were released because of political connections touched a nerve.
Ukrainian tabloids are filled with the exploits of the so-called mazhory, the children of the wealthy and powerful who can seem impervious to punishment.
Some called on the government to reinstate the death penalty as in Soviet times and execute the men, according to local media reports.
After the public outcry, Mr. Yanukovich directed Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka, to open an inquiry.
It found that the police had acted carelessly.
Several officials in the local prosecutor’s office and police departments involved in the case were fired and others were demoted.
Asked in a videotaped interview shortly before her death what she wanted to say to her attackers, Ms. Makar, visibly straining against the pain, said she hoped they would be raped in prison.
Showing posts with label Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Law. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Ukraine Shuts Down Forum For Malware Writers
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian authorities have shut down a long-running forum that was used to trade tips on writing malicious software, a sign the country's law enforcement may be watching hackers more closely.
Administrators for the forum, VX Heavens, wrote that its servers were seized on March 23 for allegedly creating and intending to sell malicious software programs, a violation of Ukraine's criminal code.
The website called the accusation "absurd" but said it couldn't offer services with the pending court case.
VX Heavens might have been easy pickings for Ukraine, which has been noted by computer security experts as being a hotbed of cybercrime.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos, wrote that VX Heavens operated for many years, hosting virus-writing tutorials and malicious code samples.
But the site is likely just a small player in an expansive cybercriminal underground.
"The folks using the VX Heavens website were probably not in the same league as the financially-motivated organized criminals computer users are often troubled by today, and mirror rather more the hobbyist malware authors of yesteryear," Cluley wrote.
"Nevertheless, it's clear that the Ukrainian authorities didn't like what they saw and have confiscated the website's servers in their hunt for evidence of criminality," he wrote.
Ukraine has stepped up its computer crime and fraud enforcement efforts in recent years.
Last June its security service, the SBU, said it busted a cybercrime ring that stole some US$72 million using Conficker, a fast-spreading worm that appeared in 2008.
Since October 2009, the FBI has stationed a supervisory special agent at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to assist with cybercrime investigations that target the U.S.
Administrators for the forum, VX Heavens, wrote that its servers were seized on March 23 for allegedly creating and intending to sell malicious software programs, a violation of Ukraine's criminal code.
The website called the accusation "absurd" but said it couldn't offer services with the pending court case.
VX Heavens might have been easy pickings for Ukraine, which has been noted by computer security experts as being a hotbed of cybercrime.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos, wrote that VX Heavens operated for many years, hosting virus-writing tutorials and malicious code samples.
But the site is likely just a small player in an expansive cybercriminal underground.
"The folks using the VX Heavens website were probably not in the same league as the financially-motivated organized criminals computer users are often troubled by today, and mirror rather more the hobbyist malware authors of yesteryear," Cluley wrote.
"Nevertheless, it's clear that the Ukrainian authorities didn't like what they saw and have confiscated the website's servers in their hunt for evidence of criminality," he wrote.
Ukraine has stepped up its computer crime and fraud enforcement efforts in recent years.
Last June its security service, the SBU, said it busted a cybercrime ring that stole some US$72 million using Conficker, a fast-spreading worm that appeared in 2008.
Since October 2009, the FBI has stationed a supervisory special agent at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to assist with cybercrime investigations that target the U.S.
Ukraine Wants To Close Yushchenko Poisoning Case
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian prosecutors have substantial grounds to close a criminal case on the alleged poisoning of former president Viktor Yushchenko due to lack of evidence, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka said on Thursday.
“This case has all the circumstances giving us legal reasons to close the investigation,” Pshonka told a news conference in Kiev.
He said the case had not been terminated yet only because Yushchenko had continually refused to give blood tests and offered little cooperation in the official investigation.
“For the sake of history, so that the closing verdict is unbiased, it is desirable that Yushchenko give his blood sample,” Pshonka said.
The suspected dioxin poisoning in September 2004 during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine made Yushchenko seriously ill, and left his face badly disfigured.
The original medical reports by toxicologists from Switzerland, which claimed dioxin levels in Yushchenko’s body 50,000 times above normal, were sharply criticized for lack of supporting, peer-reviewed research.
The blood tests by Ukrainian doctors in November 2005 were mysteriously destroyed.
Yushchenko poisoning theory was officially supported by Ukrainian authorities during his presidency from January 2005 until February 2010.
However, a new team of investigators assigned to the case after Yushchenko lost power to his long-term rival Viktor Yanukovych, alleged that the Yushchenko dioxin poisoning could have been falsified to strengthen his positions during 2004 presidential elections.
Investigators demanded that the ex-president give new blood tests, as traces of dioxin remain in blood forever.
Yushchenko, whose health has improved significantly since 2004, has refused to cooperate and said last year he wanted to "close that chapter" in his life.
“This case has all the circumstances giving us legal reasons to close the investigation,” Pshonka told a news conference in Kiev.
He said the case had not been terminated yet only because Yushchenko had continually refused to give blood tests and offered little cooperation in the official investigation.
“For the sake of history, so that the closing verdict is unbiased, it is desirable that Yushchenko give his blood sample,” Pshonka said.
The suspected dioxin poisoning in September 2004 during the presidential election campaign in Ukraine made Yushchenko seriously ill, and left his face badly disfigured.
The original medical reports by toxicologists from Switzerland, which claimed dioxin levels in Yushchenko’s body 50,000 times above normal, were sharply criticized for lack of supporting, peer-reviewed research.
The blood tests by Ukrainian doctors in November 2005 were mysteriously destroyed.
Yushchenko poisoning theory was officially supported by Ukrainian authorities during his presidency from January 2005 until February 2010.
However, a new team of investigators assigned to the case after Yushchenko lost power to his long-term rival Viktor Yanukovych, alleged that the Yushchenko dioxin poisoning could have been falsified to strengthen his positions during 2004 presidential elections.
Investigators demanded that the ex-president give new blood tests, as traces of dioxin remain in blood forever.
Yushchenko, whose health has improved significantly since 2004, has refused to cooperate and said last year he wanted to "close that chapter" in his life.
Euronest Urges Ukraine To Provide Yulia Tymoshenko Medical Care
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly has urged Ukrainian authorities to stop denying jailed Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko her basic human right to medical care.
The Assembly, which brings together Members of the European Parliament and MPs from the EU's eastern neighbor countries, made the demand in an urgent resolution passed on Wednesday at its meeting in Azerbaijan capital Baku.
The resolution highlights Tymoshenko's fundamental right to health care, rather than political concerns for her as Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Ukraine MP and Euronest Co-Chair Borys Tarasyuk explained before the vote.
The resolution, tabled by Tarasyuk, MEPs, and Moldavian and Ukrainian MPs, was approved by 40 votes to two with 17 abstentions.
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly called on the Ukrainian authorities to allow Tymoshenko to undergo regular independent toxicology tests in the EU, medical treatment outside the prison system and regular health checks by international medical experts.
It noted that these experts have encountered obstacles when trying to assess her condition.
Euronest members urged the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee the fundamental right to health and well-being of her fellow former Ministers Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivashchenko, and also to ensure that they get the medical care that they need, in line with international standards.
MEPs and their counterparts from the EU's eastern neighbor countries also deplored the sentence passed on Tymoshenko and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a fair, transparent and impartial appeal process for her and other former members of her government facing economic offense charges.
The Assembly, which brings together Members of the European Parliament and MPs from the EU's eastern neighbor countries, made the demand in an urgent resolution passed on Wednesday at its meeting in Azerbaijan capital Baku.
The resolution highlights Tymoshenko's fundamental right to health care, rather than political concerns for her as Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Ukraine MP and Euronest Co-Chair Borys Tarasyuk explained before the vote.
The resolution, tabled by Tarasyuk, MEPs, and Moldavian and Ukrainian MPs, was approved by 40 votes to two with 17 abstentions.
The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly called on the Ukrainian authorities to allow Tymoshenko to undergo regular independent toxicology tests in the EU, medical treatment outside the prison system and regular health checks by international medical experts.
It noted that these experts have encountered obstacles when trying to assess her condition.
Euronest members urged the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee the fundamental right to health and well-being of her fellow former Ministers Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivashchenko, and also to ensure that they get the medical care that they need, in line with international standards.
MEPs and their counterparts from the EU's eastern neighbor countries also deplored the sentence passed on Tymoshenko and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a fair, transparent and impartial appeal process for her and other former members of her government facing economic offense charges.
Ukraine Jails Ex-Minister And Tymoshenko Ally Filipchuk
KIEV, Ukraine -- A court in Ukraine has jailed former Environment Minister Heorhiy Filipchuk for abuse of office - an ally of ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko, who is also in jail.
Filipchuk was jailed in Kiev for three years over a contract with a law firm, Astapov Lawyers, concerning a Black Sea shelf exploration deal.
His lawyer called the ruling "absurd" and said he would appeal against it.
Tymoshenko, in prison near Kharkiv, complains of acute back pain.
A Polish Euro MP visited her on Thursday.
The meeting at Kachanivska penal colony, in eastern Ukraine, lasted an hour, conservative MEP Pawel Kowal said.
"She told me about problems with her spine that require treatment," he said.
"She told me that she must lie down practically all the time and can only sustain a sitting position for a few minutes," he added.
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group says it is the first time that an MEP has visited the imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader, who was a key figure in the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
On Friday Mr Kowal visited the imprisoned former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, another ally of Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.
He was jailed in February for four years, for abuse of office and embezzlement.
On 17 April the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will hear a complaint from Lutsenko, in which he alleges the Ukrainian authorities violated his rights.
The Filipchuk case dates back to December 2010.
He had been under house arrest for a year before being jailed on Thursday.
Tymoshenko, 50, is a fierce critic of President Viktor Yanukovych.
She was sentenced to seven years in jail last October for abuse of power.
The case has strained relations between Ukraine and the EU.
Her conviction relates to a 10-year gas deal with Russia she signed in 2009, when she was still prime minister.
Prosecutors said Tymoshenko did not have cabinet approval to sign, and the deal was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy.
She denies wrongdoing but lost an appeal against the verdict in December.
She calls it political revenge by President Yanukovych.
Filipchuk was jailed in Kiev for three years over a contract with a law firm, Astapov Lawyers, concerning a Black Sea shelf exploration deal.
His lawyer called the ruling "absurd" and said he would appeal against it.
Tymoshenko, in prison near Kharkiv, complains of acute back pain.
A Polish Euro MP visited her on Thursday.
The meeting at Kachanivska penal colony, in eastern Ukraine, lasted an hour, conservative MEP Pawel Kowal said.
"She told me about problems with her spine that require treatment," he said.
"She told me that she must lie down practically all the time and can only sustain a sitting position for a few minutes," he added.
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group says it is the first time that an MEP has visited the imprisoned Ukrainian opposition leader, who was a key figure in the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
On Friday Mr Kowal visited the imprisoned former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, another ally of Tymoshenko, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.
He was jailed in February for four years, for abuse of office and embezzlement.
On 17 April the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will hear a complaint from Lutsenko, in which he alleges the Ukrainian authorities violated his rights.
The Filipchuk case dates back to December 2010.
He had been under house arrest for a year before being jailed on Thursday.
Tymoshenko, 50, is a fierce critic of President Viktor Yanukovych.
She was sentenced to seven years in jail last October for abuse of power.
The case has strained relations between Ukraine and the EU.
Her conviction relates to a 10-year gas deal with Russia she signed in 2009, when she was still prime minister.
Prosecutors said Tymoshenko did not have cabinet approval to sign, and the deal was ruinous for the Ukrainian economy.
She denies wrongdoing but lost an appeal against the verdict in December.
She calls it political revenge by President Yanukovych.
Court Reduces Voting Districts For Kiev
KIEV, Ukraine -- A Constitution Court ruling announced on Thursday may reduce the number of election districts in the city of Kiev, de-facto benefiting the ruling Regions Party ahead of the October parliamentary elections.
The Court deemed unconstitutional a part of the election law that allows Ukrainian voters temporarily living overseas to cast their ballots for candidates in Kiev districts.
The Court acted on a petition from 59 Regions Party lawmakers.
The ruling suggests that about 400,000 Ukrainians living overseas that traditionally vote for pro-Western candidates will only be able to vote for parties, but not for individual lawmakers in majority districts.
This may effectively reduce to 13 from 16 the number of lawmakers to be elected from Kiev, and may relocate the three seats to eastern regions where the Regions Party dominates the vote.
Half of the 450-seat Parliament will be elected on a party-list vote and another half will be elected in individual constituencies.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Front of Changes party who is likely to lead Ukraine’s united opposition for the election, accused President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party of breaking a pact on fair elections with opposition.
“The government understands that the Kievites will not support them that’s why they try to get more mandates in regions where it can falsify the elections,” Yatseniuk said.
“The election process has begun and the swindlers from the Regions Party have again decided to change the rules of the game for their benefit.”
“The pact on fair elections is broken by President Yanukovych,” Yatseniuk said.
“Pandora’s Box was opened in Parliament concerning the change of the election law.”
The law, approved in November 2011 by 366 lawmakers, including by 98 opposition deputies, was praised as a compromise between the ruling Regions Party and the opposition groups.
The law eased fears of possible boycott of the election by the opposition groups, a move that would most likely make the elections not legitimate.
Although losing on some issues, the opposition groups managed to push through amendments that make it more difficult for pro-government parties to dominate election commissions that will eventually count ballots.
This is supposed to reduce possible election fraud.
The law also increased the threshold that is required for entering Parliament on party lists to 5% from 3% currently, potentially hurting small parties.
Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission who is thought to be loyal to opposition groups, said the latest court ruling violates the constitution by denying the right of the Ukrainian living overseas the right to vote for candidates in individual constituencies.
“The article No. 22 of the constitution guarantees the right for the people to have equal election rights,” Usenko-Chorna told Ukrainian News agency.
“The situation shaped towards restricting this right.”
But Yatseniuk said that the opposition groups will win the elections, and said the judges of the Constitutional Court will be responsible for their latest ruling.
“The united opposition will win the elections anyway, despite all machinations by the Constitutional Court, whose judges will bear responsibility for today’s ruling,” Yatseniuk said.
The Court deemed unconstitutional a part of the election law that allows Ukrainian voters temporarily living overseas to cast their ballots for candidates in Kiev districts.
The Court acted on a petition from 59 Regions Party lawmakers.
The ruling suggests that about 400,000 Ukrainians living overseas that traditionally vote for pro-Western candidates will only be able to vote for parties, but not for individual lawmakers in majority districts.
This may effectively reduce to 13 from 16 the number of lawmakers to be elected from Kiev, and may relocate the three seats to eastern regions where the Regions Party dominates the vote.
Half of the 450-seat Parliament will be elected on a party-list vote and another half will be elected in individual constituencies.
Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Front of Changes party who is likely to lead Ukraine’s united opposition for the election, accused President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party of breaking a pact on fair elections with opposition.
“The government understands that the Kievites will not support them that’s why they try to get more mandates in regions where it can falsify the elections,” Yatseniuk said.
“The election process has begun and the swindlers from the Regions Party have again decided to change the rules of the game for their benefit.”
“The pact on fair elections is broken by President Yanukovych,” Yatseniuk said.
“Pandora’s Box was opened in Parliament concerning the change of the election law.”
The law, approved in November 2011 by 366 lawmakers, including by 98 opposition deputies, was praised as a compromise between the ruling Regions Party and the opposition groups.
The law eased fears of possible boycott of the election by the opposition groups, a move that would most likely make the elections not legitimate.
Although losing on some issues, the opposition groups managed to push through amendments that make it more difficult for pro-government parties to dominate election commissions that will eventually count ballots.
This is supposed to reduce possible election fraud.
The law also increased the threshold that is required for entering Parliament on party lists to 5% from 3% currently, potentially hurting small parties.
Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a deputy head of the Central Election Commission who is thought to be loyal to opposition groups, said the latest court ruling violates the constitution by denying the right of the Ukrainian living overseas the right to vote for candidates in individual constituencies.
“The article No. 22 of the constitution guarantees the right for the people to have equal election rights,” Usenko-Chorna told Ukrainian News agency.
“The situation shaped towards restricting this right.”
But Yatseniuk said that the opposition groups will win the elections, and said the judges of the Constitutional Court will be responsible for their latest ruling.
“The united opposition will win the elections anyway, despite all machinations by the Constitutional Court, whose judges will bear responsibility for today’s ruling,” Yatseniuk said.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Ukrainian Woman's Rape Stirs Public 'Vendetta'
KIEV, Ukraine -- On March 10, a passer-by in the Southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, population 500,000, heard faint moaning from a construction site and alerted a cop.
The policeman climbed through a hole in the fence and found a sight he is likely never to forget: a naked girl somebody had tried to burn alive.
Oksana Makar, 18, was barely hanging on to life: Doctors later estimated that her burns affected 55 percent of her body.
She had also been raped and half-strangled.
Police acted quickly, and three suspects, all local men in their early 20s, were apprehended the next day.
Among them was Maxim Prisyazhnyuk, the adopted son of a local government official.
The police apparently let him go, along with another one of the young men.
But news spread quickly, and in a matter of hours, the entire city, a center of the sagging Ukrainian shipbuilding industry, seemed up in arms.
The suspects were promptly taken into custody again -- now they needed protection from an angry mob.
A local website, Novosti N, leaked a police video of one of the men, Yevgeny Krasnoshchok, giving matter-of-fact testimony on how the three of them took Makar home, got her drunk, took turns with her, and then tried to strangle her and dispose of what they believed was a dead body.
The video was watched 40,000 times on the local site and 300,000 times on YouTube.
On March 15, about 2,000 people -- an enormous crowd by Mykolaiv standards -- gathered in the city's main square, demanding justice for the rapists and threatening to lynch them.
Pickets and rallies were held in the nation's other cities, from Lviv in Western Ukraine to Kharkiv in the east.
On social networks, a drive to collect money for Makar's treatment quickly gathered momentum, producing a hefty sum of 1.5 million hryvnyas ($187,500) in less than a week -- probably the most successful crowd-funding effort in Ukrainian history.
Crimes of this kind aren't exactly rare in Ukraine's depressed industrial areas.
But the rape and attempted murder of Makar became a national issue because of one of the rapists' ties to the ruling elite.
Prisyazhnyuk, apart from being the son of an official, was reported to be a former member of the governing Regions Party's youth wing.
In recent years, Ukraine has watched in dismay as members of the nation's “golden youth” have gotten away with highly public criminal acts.
One of them was Sergei Demishkan, the son of the top official at the national highway agency, who received a suspended five-year sentence for brutally killing a businessman.
Roman Landik, the son of an influential Regions Party legislator, was captured on camera beating up a woman in a restaurant -- and also escaped with a suspended sentence.
The children of local officials, judges and prosecutors -- "mazhory," as they are collectively known -- have walked free after causing fatal car accidents.
Many Ukrainians saw the Mykolaiv situation as a last straw.
Odessa politician Alexey Goncharenko wrote in his blog:
The beasts who let off two of the three rapists and murderers … are the real criminals in this situation as far as I am concerned ...
In the past 20 years the law-enforcement agencies and courts, society's immune system, have found themselves in a sorry state.
They have been afflicted with the viruses of corruption, indifference and impunity.
Ukrainian political commentator Andrei Okara warned of a possible “vendetta against the government” if more cases like that surface.
“Every time the children of officials are declared innocent and the blame is put on the victims,” Okara said.
“This is a powerful detonator of public anger and discontent which can create grounds for a revolutionary situation in Ukraine.”
The public outcry has caused the nation's top officials, including President Viktor Yanukovich, to declare their personal interest in the Makar case.
Ukraine's richest man -- the metals tycoon and Yanukovich supporter Renat Akhmetov -- helped transfer Makar to the Donetsk burn center, a modern medical institution with an international reputation, and paid for a Swiss surgeon to come over to operate on her.
Despite an initial prognosis that gave Makar a 0.5 percent chance of survival, she is still alive.
Her right arm has been amputated and she is not likely to have the use of her legs if she does recover.
In another widely watched video, Makar says she hopes her assailants get raped in jail.
Sympathy for her is still widespread in Ukraine -- but less so since March 19, when "Let Them Speak," a Russian tabloid TV show, interviewed the bartender who saw Makar meet the three men on March 9.
The woman described Makar as a “loose” girl who had frequented the bar, always trying to pick up men and get them to pay for her drinks.
It has also been revealed that Makar's mother had a criminal record.
The tone of many comments in Internet discussions of the case has since changed abruptly.
“I just don't understand why a slut is being made out to be an innocent victim,” a Mykolaiv woman commented on Novosti N recently.
Ukraine is a highly traditional society, and it is not a universally held view that a rape is entirely the rapist's fault.
Many people tend to attach equal blame to the victim.
Makar's alleged character flaws make her a less credible cause celebrate.
There are no more rallies in Makar's support.
Moreover, the authorities who have enjoyed, along with their children, a culture of immunity, may yet turn the situation to their advantage, switching public attention from the crimes of the mazhory to calls for tougher laws.
Or there is another possible outcome.
The Communist faction in parliament has used the Mykolaiv case to advance a bill reintroducing the death sentence, abolished when Ukraine joined the Council of Europe in 1995.
Last year, polls showed 45 percent of the nation backing such a measure, and the case of Makar may just drive that number higher.
If that happens, the ruling Regions Party could easily jump on the bandwagon and push through the legislation.
The policeman climbed through a hole in the fence and found a sight he is likely never to forget: a naked girl somebody had tried to burn alive.
Oksana Makar, 18, was barely hanging on to life: Doctors later estimated that her burns affected 55 percent of her body.
She had also been raped and half-strangled.
Police acted quickly, and three suspects, all local men in their early 20s, were apprehended the next day.
Among them was Maxim Prisyazhnyuk, the adopted son of a local government official.
The police apparently let him go, along with another one of the young men.
But news spread quickly, and in a matter of hours, the entire city, a center of the sagging Ukrainian shipbuilding industry, seemed up in arms.
The suspects were promptly taken into custody again -- now they needed protection from an angry mob.
A local website, Novosti N, leaked a police video of one of the men, Yevgeny Krasnoshchok, giving matter-of-fact testimony on how the three of them took Makar home, got her drunk, took turns with her, and then tried to strangle her and dispose of what they believed was a dead body.
The video was watched 40,000 times on the local site and 300,000 times on YouTube.
On March 15, about 2,000 people -- an enormous crowd by Mykolaiv standards -- gathered in the city's main square, demanding justice for the rapists and threatening to lynch them.
Pickets and rallies were held in the nation's other cities, from Lviv in Western Ukraine to Kharkiv in the east.
On social networks, a drive to collect money for Makar's treatment quickly gathered momentum, producing a hefty sum of 1.5 million hryvnyas ($187,500) in less than a week -- probably the most successful crowd-funding effort in Ukrainian history.
Crimes of this kind aren't exactly rare in Ukraine's depressed industrial areas.
But the rape and attempted murder of Makar became a national issue because of one of the rapists' ties to the ruling elite.
Prisyazhnyuk, apart from being the son of an official, was reported to be a former member of the governing Regions Party's youth wing.
In recent years, Ukraine has watched in dismay as members of the nation's “golden youth” have gotten away with highly public criminal acts.
One of them was Sergei Demishkan, the son of the top official at the national highway agency, who received a suspended five-year sentence for brutally killing a businessman.
Roman Landik, the son of an influential Regions Party legislator, was captured on camera beating up a woman in a restaurant -- and also escaped with a suspended sentence.
The children of local officials, judges and prosecutors -- "mazhory," as they are collectively known -- have walked free after causing fatal car accidents.
Many Ukrainians saw the Mykolaiv situation as a last straw.
Odessa politician Alexey Goncharenko wrote in his blog:
The beasts who let off two of the three rapists and murderers … are the real criminals in this situation as far as I am concerned ...
In the past 20 years the law-enforcement agencies and courts, society's immune system, have found themselves in a sorry state.
They have been afflicted with the viruses of corruption, indifference and impunity.
Ukrainian political commentator Andrei Okara warned of a possible “vendetta against the government” if more cases like that surface.
“Every time the children of officials are declared innocent and the blame is put on the victims,” Okara said.
“This is a powerful detonator of public anger and discontent which can create grounds for a revolutionary situation in Ukraine.”
The public outcry has caused the nation's top officials, including President Viktor Yanukovich, to declare their personal interest in the Makar case.
Ukraine's richest man -- the metals tycoon and Yanukovich supporter Renat Akhmetov -- helped transfer Makar to the Donetsk burn center, a modern medical institution with an international reputation, and paid for a Swiss surgeon to come over to operate on her.
Despite an initial prognosis that gave Makar a 0.5 percent chance of survival, she is still alive.
Her right arm has been amputated and she is not likely to have the use of her legs if she does recover.
In another widely watched video, Makar says she hopes her assailants get raped in jail.
Sympathy for her is still widespread in Ukraine -- but less so since March 19, when "Let Them Speak," a Russian tabloid TV show, interviewed the bartender who saw Makar meet the three men on March 9.
The woman described Makar as a “loose” girl who had frequented the bar, always trying to pick up men and get them to pay for her drinks.
It has also been revealed that Makar's mother had a criminal record.
The tone of many comments in Internet discussions of the case has since changed abruptly.
“I just don't understand why a slut is being made out to be an innocent victim,” a Mykolaiv woman commented on Novosti N recently.
Ukraine is a highly traditional society, and it is not a universally held view that a rape is entirely the rapist's fault.
Many people tend to attach equal blame to the victim.
Makar's alleged character flaws make her a less credible cause celebrate.
There are no more rallies in Makar's support.
Moreover, the authorities who have enjoyed, along with their children, a culture of immunity, may yet turn the situation to their advantage, switching public attention from the crimes of the mazhory to calls for tougher laws.
Or there is another possible outcome.
The Communist faction in parliament has used the Mykolaiv case to advance a bill reintroducing the death sentence, abolished when Ukraine joined the Council of Europe in 1995.
Last year, polls showed 45 percent of the nation backing such a measure, and the case of Makar may just drive that number higher.
If that happens, the ruling Regions Party could easily jump on the bandwagon and push through the legislation.
Ukrainian Mafia Steps Up To Avenge Rape Victim
MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukrainian mafia leaders have formed an alliance to take retribution on three high-profile men accused of raping, attempting to strangle and burning a young woman alive in the Ukrainian town of Nikolayev,
he leaders reportedly ordered their contacts in every prison in Ukraine to "take care" of the three men and do make them "worse than [the victim]" in revenge for their alleged attack on Oxana Makar.
Makar, 18, remains in critical condition.
Her parents, meanwhile, have been attempting to remind the public of her suffering; her mother recently uploaded a video that shows the girl struggling in pain to form the words "I want to live."
Doctors have said the typical chances of survival for a patient in Makar's state are one in a thousand, but the girl has been fighting to cling to life amid daily surgeries.
The three suspects were initially released after the crime due to “lack of evidence” before Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych personally ordered their arrest following a national outcry.
Two of the suspects are sons of Ukrainian officials. Maxim Prisyjnikov, 23, is the son of the regional administrator while Artyon Pogosyan, 21, is the son of the regional prosecutor.
The third suspect is the pair’s friend, 23-year-old Yevgeniy Krasnoshek.
It was claimed that the trio met Makar at a café and invited her to a house party.
They allegedly raped Makar after taking her home; after becoming aware of the crime they had allegedly committed, the suspects allegedly panicked and strangled Makar with an electrical wire.
The suspects then allegedly set her on fire after waiting some time to make sure she was dead.
he leaders reportedly ordered their contacts in every prison in Ukraine to "take care" of the three men and do make them "worse than [the victim]" in revenge for their alleged attack on Oxana Makar.
Makar, 18, remains in critical condition.
Her parents, meanwhile, have been attempting to remind the public of her suffering; her mother recently uploaded a video that shows the girl struggling in pain to form the words "I want to live."
Doctors have said the typical chances of survival for a patient in Makar's state are one in a thousand, but the girl has been fighting to cling to life amid daily surgeries.
The three suspects were initially released after the crime due to “lack of evidence” before Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych personally ordered their arrest following a national outcry.
Two of the suspects are sons of Ukrainian officials. Maxim Prisyjnikov, 23, is the son of the regional administrator while Artyon Pogosyan, 21, is the son of the regional prosecutor.
The third suspect is the pair’s friend, 23-year-old Yevgeniy Krasnoshek.
It was claimed that the trio met Makar at a café and invited her to a house party.
They allegedly raped Makar after taking her home; after becoming aware of the crime they had allegedly committed, the suspects allegedly panicked and strangled Makar with an electrical wire.
The suspects then allegedly set her on fire after waiting some time to make sure she was dead.
Ukraine rape victim searches for justice
he 18-year-old woman, prosecutors say, was gang-raped by three young men, who tried to cover up their crime by strangling her with a cord, wrapping her naked body in a blanket and dumping her at an abandoned construction site — where they set her on fire.
Amazingly, Oksana Makar survived.
But her quest for justice seemed doomed after the police released two of the three suspects whose parents had political connections in the provincial Ukrainian region.
Her case galvanized Ukrainians fed up with the official corruption that allows people with money and connections to avoid punishment, whether for violating traffic laws or more serious crimes. The protection also extends to their children, known here as "mazhory," roughly translated as rich brats.
After a national protest campaign, the police arrested the two released suspects and charged all three with rape. The one who has remained in custody was also charged with attempted murder.
Makar remains hospitalized, with burns over more than half of her body and severe damage to her lungs. Her right arm was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene.
Her mother said she used to be a cheerful young woman with many friends in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding city of about a half million residents some 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, Kiev. She liked dancing in clubs, boxing and bungee jumping.
That life ended on March 9 when Makar met two young men at a bar and they invited her to a friend's apartment.
One suspect, identified as Yevhen K., told investigators that he and two friends had sex with Makar repeatedly, including at least one time that he admitted was rape.
A videotape of his interrogation, whose authenticity has been confirmed by authorities, was shown on Ukrainian television: "She yelled and swung her arms around and I raped her," said the 23-year-old suspect.
After Makar threatened to call police, the suspect said he first tried to strangle her with his bare hands and then finish her off with a piece of white cable he found in the apartment. She lost consciousness.
The suspect said he and his friends wrapped Makar's naked body in a blanket and dumped it into a pit at a deserted construction site. He said he then dropped a pillow case into the pit and set it on fire.
Afterward, he said, they went home and changed into new clothes. They bought vodka at a store and went to a food stand, where one suspect ordered tea and the other a beer.
"We sat down, had a smoke and then went our own ways," said Yevhen K., the suspect accused of attempted murder as well as rape.
Makar was saved when a passing car happened to stall right next to the construction site. The three suspects were soon arrested, and two set free.
Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko has confirmed that the parents of two of the suspects are former government officials in the Mykolaiv region. Makar's mother, Tetyana Surovitska, accused police of freeing them because of their parents' connections.
"Where is justice?" Surovitska said in an interview with a local television channel. "Is it because I don't have cars and apartments and connections and I cannot turn to anyone?"
She received overwhelming support not only in Mykolaiv but across the country from people tired of seeing government officials and their children go unpunished for violent crimes, including assault and deadly road accidents.
There have been dozens of cases of "mazhory" driving expensive cars while drunk and hitting pedestrians, sometimes killing them, and walking away, said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. The same thing often happens in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
"Unfortunately, this situation is typical of most post-Soviet countries when either connections or corruption is used: A high-ranking official makes a call or money is paid to a senior police official, and a person who committed a serious crime is set free," Fesenko said.
"The Ukrainian justice system is dependent on those with power and money."
Makar's case clearly hit a nerve among Ukrainians, setting off several protests in Mykolaiv and elsewhere.
During one rally in Mykolaiv, dozens of activists protested outside the offices of prosecutors and police, demanding that they punish the perpetrators of the rape as well as the officers who released the two suspects.
Protests, organized on social networking sites, were also held in the Black Sea port of Odessa and the eastern city of Kharkiv. In Kiev, five members of the women's rights group Femen, which stages topless protests, bared their chests on top of the entrance to the Prosecutor General's Office and held banners reading "Death to the Sadists" and "Execute the Bastards."
Meanwhile, dozens of Mykolaiv residents rushed to donate blood for Makar and sympathizers from across the country sent donations to her mother. Makar is in a hospital in the eastern city of Donetsk, where she was operated on this week by a burn specialist from Switzerland. She remains in grave condition.
The Prosecutor General's Office is investigating Surovitska's claims that the suspects were released illegally.
President Viktor Yanukovych is also looking into the case.
To Surovitska, the high-level interest is little consolation as she cares for her only daughter.
"She loved life so much, but they destroyed her body, her soul and her spirit," Surovitska said in a phone interview. "They destroyed my child."
Amazingly, Oksana Makar survived.
But her quest for justice seemed doomed after the police released two of the three suspects whose parents had political connections in the provincial Ukrainian region.
Her case galvanized Ukrainians fed up with the official corruption that allows people with money and connections to avoid punishment, whether for violating traffic laws or more serious crimes. The protection also extends to their children, known here as "mazhory," roughly translated as rich brats.
After a national protest campaign, the police arrested the two released suspects and charged all three with rape. The one who has remained in custody was also charged with attempted murder.
Makar remains hospitalized, with burns over more than half of her body and severe damage to her lungs. Her right arm was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene.
Her mother said she used to be a cheerful young woman with many friends in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding city of about a half million residents some 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, Kiev. She liked dancing in clubs, boxing and bungee jumping.
That life ended on March 9 when Makar met two young men at a bar and they invited her to a friend's apartment.
One suspect, identified as Yevhen K., told investigators that he and two friends had sex with Makar repeatedly, including at least one time that he admitted was rape.
A videotape of his interrogation, whose authenticity has been confirmed by authorities, was shown on Ukrainian television: "She yelled and swung her arms around and I raped her," said the 23-year-old suspect.
After Makar threatened to call police, the suspect said he first tried to strangle her with his bare hands and then finish her off with a piece of white cable he found in the apartment. She lost consciousness.
The suspect said he and his friends wrapped Makar's naked body in a blanket and dumped it into a pit at a deserted construction site. He said he then dropped a pillow case into the pit and set it on fire.
Afterward, he said, they went home and changed into new clothes. They bought vodka at a store and went to a food stand, where one suspect ordered tea and the other a beer.
"We sat down, had a smoke and then went our own ways," said Yevhen K., the suspect accused of attempted murder as well as rape.
Makar was saved when a passing car happened to stall right next to the construction site. The three suspects were soon arrested, and two set free.
Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko has confirmed that the parents of two of the suspects are former government officials in the Mykolaiv region. Makar's mother, Tetyana Surovitska, accused police of freeing them because of their parents' connections.
"Where is justice?" Surovitska said in an interview with a local television channel. "Is it because I don't have cars and apartments and connections and I cannot turn to anyone?"
She received overwhelming support not only in Mykolaiv but across the country from people tired of seeing government officials and their children go unpunished for violent crimes, including assault and deadly road accidents.
There have been dozens of cases of "mazhory" driving expensive cars while drunk and hitting pedestrians, sometimes killing them, and walking away, said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. The same thing often happens in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
"Unfortunately, this situation is typical of most post-Soviet countries when either connections or corruption is used: A high-ranking official makes a call or money is paid to a senior police official, and a person who committed a serious crime is set free," Fesenko said.
"The Ukrainian justice system is dependent on those with power and money."
Makar's case clearly hit a nerve among Ukrainians, setting off several protests in Mykolaiv and elsewhere.
During one rally in Mykolaiv, dozens of activists protested outside the offices of prosecutors and police, demanding that they punish the perpetrators of the rape as well as the officers who released the two suspects.
Protests, organized on social networking sites, were also held in the Black Sea port of Odessa and the eastern city of Kharkiv. In Kiev, five members of the women's rights group Femen, which stages topless protests, bared their chests on top of the entrance to the Prosecutor General's Office and held banners reading "Death to the Sadists" and "Execute the Bastards."
Meanwhile, dozens of Mykolaiv residents rushed to donate blood for Makar and sympathizers from across the country sent donations to her mother. Makar is in a hospital in the eastern city of Donetsk, where she was operated on this week by a burn specialist from Switzerland. She remains in grave condition.
The Prosecutor General's Office is investigating Surovitska's claims that the suspects were released illegally.
President Viktor Yanukovych is also looking into the case.
To Surovitska, the high-level interest is little consolation as she cares for her only daughter.
"She loved life so much, but they destroyed her body, her soul and her spirit," Surovitska said in a phone interview. "They destroyed my child."
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Kyiv authorities remove 98 illegal kiosks and permanent constructions
Kyivblahoustriy municipal enterprise since the beginning of 2012 has pulled down over 60 illegally constructed kiosks in Kyiv, the press service of Kyiv City State Administration reported on Monday.
On Feb. 14, 2012, the commission of Kyiv City State Administration took the decision to pull down 98 kiosks and temporary constructions in Kyiv.
According to a press service, new proposals from Kyiv citizens to remove illegally constructed kiosks located on the edge of Kyiv ahead of the Euro 2012 football event and also near metro and public transport stations were considered by the commission responsible for placing of temporary constructions headed by first Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Mazurchak on Feb. 20.
The administration noted that according to a decision of Kyiv Council of Jan. 26, 2012, the ban on setting up kiosks in particular concerns facilities located at a distance of less than 20 meters from the entrance or exit of metro and public transport stations.
Moreover according to the document, the installation of kiosks is banned within in a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the Olympiysky National Sports Complex and in areas near trade centers for which the centers have obtained planning permission.
On Feb. 14, 2012, the commission of Kyiv City State Administration took the decision to pull down 98 kiosks and temporary constructions in Kyiv.
According to a press service, new proposals from Kyiv citizens to remove illegally constructed kiosks located on the edge of Kyiv ahead of the Euro 2012 football event and also near metro and public transport stations were considered by the commission responsible for placing of temporary constructions headed by first Deputy Head of Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Mazurchak on Feb. 20.
The administration noted that according to a decision of Kyiv Council of Jan. 26, 2012, the ban on setting up kiosks in particular concerns facilities located at a distance of less than 20 meters from the entrance or exit of metro and public transport stations.
Moreover according to the document, the installation of kiosks is banned within in a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the Olympiysky National Sports Complex and in areas near trade centers for which the centers have obtained planning permission.
Lutsenko verdict expected on Feb. 27
Former top cop Yuriy Lutsenko faces more than four years in prison on abuse of office and corruption charges.
Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court is scheduled on Feb. 27 to announce its verdict in the case of Yuriy Lutsenko, an Orange Revolution leader who became the nation’s top cop but now faces more than four years in prison.
The nation’s interior minister in 2005-2006 and again from 2007-2010, Lutsenko has been held in a pre-trial detention jail for 14 months. He is held on corruption charges that have been criticized as part of President Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign of political persecution against allies of imprisoned rival ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Lutsenko denies the charges that he exceeded his official authority in leading the nation's more than 300,000 police officers.
Judge Serhiy Vovk’s verdict on the Lutsenko case will be closely watched as yet another sign of whether Ukraine is slipping further into authoritarianism after halting democratic progress.
The prosecutions of Lutsenko and other opposition politicians, including Tymoshenko, who was sentenced on Oct. 11 to seven years in prison, have been widely criticized as show trials.
The European Union warns that politically motivated prosecutions threaten relations.
Yanukovych claims Ukraine’s law enforcement and courts are independent of him and describes the investigations as a genuine attempt to combat corruption. But not many people are buying the explanation. The nation’s history is one of political control over the nation’s judicial system, from judges to prosecutors and police.
Prosecutors say Lutsenko abused his powers by illegally extending police surveillance of the one-time driver of former Security Service of Ukraine chief Volodymyr Satsyuk.
Satsyuk was one of the people with whom ex-President Viktor Yushchenko dined in September 2004 just before falling ill with an almost fatal dioxin poisoning. Yushchenko believes the poisoning took place then.
But Lutsenko’s lawyer claims that prosecutors produced no evidence of wrongdoing or witnesses who supported claims that extending the surveillance was illegal.
Prosecutors also accuse Lutsenko of abusing his authority by spending some $37,500 in state budget money to celebrate Police Day in 2008 and 2009. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim there was no loss to the state because the funds largely went to state-owned concert hall Palats Ukraina.
According to a third charge, Lutsenko exceeded authority by arranging for the allocation of a one-room apartment for his driver, Leonid Prystupliuk, and illegally promoting the driver to qualify him for a larger pension. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim that only one out of dozens of witnesses upheld this claim.
Mykhaylo Klyuyev, a former deputy interior minister, said that Lutsenko gave him documents that increased the driver’s record of civilian work experience. But when Lutsenko showed evidence that Klyuyev was on a trip abroad that day, the witness struggled to explain the contradiction.
Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Lutsenko to four and a half years in prison and to confiscate his property. They also want Lutsenko to be fined $36,000 and deprived from holding public office for three years.
Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court is scheduled on Feb. 27 to announce its verdict in the case of Yuriy Lutsenko, an Orange Revolution leader who became the nation’s top cop but now faces more than four years in prison.
The nation’s interior minister in 2005-2006 and again from 2007-2010, Lutsenko has been held in a pre-trial detention jail for 14 months. He is held on corruption charges that have been criticized as part of President Viktor Yanukovych’s campaign of political persecution against allies of imprisoned rival ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Lutsenko denies the charges that he exceeded his official authority in leading the nation's more than 300,000 police officers.
Judge Serhiy Vovk’s verdict on the Lutsenko case will be closely watched as yet another sign of whether Ukraine is slipping further into authoritarianism after halting democratic progress.
The prosecutions of Lutsenko and other opposition politicians, including Tymoshenko, who was sentenced on Oct. 11 to seven years in prison, have been widely criticized as show trials.
The European Union warns that politically motivated prosecutions threaten relations.
Yanukovych claims Ukraine’s law enforcement and courts are independent of him and describes the investigations as a genuine attempt to combat corruption. But not many people are buying the explanation. The nation’s history is one of political control over the nation’s judicial system, from judges to prosecutors and police.
Prosecutors say Lutsenko abused his powers by illegally extending police surveillance of the one-time driver of former Security Service of Ukraine chief Volodymyr Satsyuk.
Satsyuk was one of the people with whom ex-President Viktor Yushchenko dined in September 2004 just before falling ill with an almost fatal dioxin poisoning. Yushchenko believes the poisoning took place then.
But Lutsenko’s lawyer claims that prosecutors produced no evidence of wrongdoing or witnesses who supported claims that extending the surveillance was illegal.
Prosecutors also accuse Lutsenko of abusing his authority by spending some $37,500 in state budget money to celebrate Police Day in 2008 and 2009. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim there was no loss to the state because the funds largely went to state-owned concert hall Palats Ukraina.
According to a third charge, Lutsenko exceeded authority by arranging for the allocation of a one-room apartment for his driver, Leonid Prystupliuk, and illegally promoting the driver to qualify him for a larger pension. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim that only one out of dozens of witnesses upheld this claim.
Mykhaylo Klyuyev, a former deputy interior minister, said that Lutsenko gave him documents that increased the driver’s record of civilian work experience. But when Lutsenko showed evidence that Klyuyev was on a trip abroad that day, the witness struggled to explain the contradiction.
Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Lutsenko to four and a half years in prison and to confiscate his property. They also want Lutsenko to be fined $36,000 and deprived from holding public office for three years.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Turchynov: Tax officials removed Tymoshenko's medical card from private clinic
The State Tax Service has removed the medical card of former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko from the Medikom private clinic, where Tymoshenko has been treated for over ten years, the Batkivschyna Party has said.
"The State Tax Service withdrew from the medical establishment all of the materials connected with treatment of the various illnesses of Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko for over ten years," the first deputy head of the party, Oleksandr Turchynov, said during a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to him, the documents were withdrawn on Jan. 13, 2012.
Turchynov said that the clinic reported this in an answer to the deputy's request.
According to him, by such "demonstrative cynicism" the authorities are trying to falsify a criminal case against Tymoshenko, as well as information about her state of health.
"We only can forecast that it is not enough for them to falsify the criminal case. Probably they want to falsify medical cases, medical documents," he stressed.
Turchynov added that the Batkivschyna Party is planning to address international organizations on the violation of Tymoshenko's rights, in particular, the Doctors Without Borders organization.
On Oct. 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
Tymoshenko was put in a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv on Aug. 5, 2011. On Dec. 30, she was transferred to Kachanivska penal colony No. 54 in Kharkiv.
The Main Investigatory Department of the SBU is continuing to investigate a criminal case against Tymoshenko on an attempt to embezzle state funds of Ukraine in especially big amounts via passing to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine obligations of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) corporation before the Defense Ministry of Russia for $405.5 million.
Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court ordered the arrest of Tymoshenko under the UESU case. Because of this, Tymoshenko is being held in the pretrial detention center of the Kachanivska colony in Kharkiv and is not involved in community work.
"The State Tax Service withdrew from the medical establishment all of the materials connected with treatment of the various illnesses of Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko for over ten years," the first deputy head of the party, Oleksandr Turchynov, said during a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to him, the documents were withdrawn on Jan. 13, 2012.
Turchynov said that the clinic reported this in an answer to the deputy's request.
According to him, by such "demonstrative cynicism" the authorities are trying to falsify a criminal case against Tymoshenko, as well as information about her state of health.
"We only can forecast that it is not enough for them to falsify the criminal case. Probably they want to falsify medical cases, medical documents," he stressed.
Turchynov added that the Batkivschyna Party is planning to address international organizations on the violation of Tymoshenko's rights, in particular, the Doctors Without Borders organization.
On Oct. 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing a gas deal with Russia in 2009.
Tymoshenko was put in a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv on Aug. 5, 2011. On Dec. 30, she was transferred to Kachanivska penal colony No. 54 in Kharkiv.
The Main Investigatory Department of the SBU is continuing to investigate a criminal case against Tymoshenko on an attempt to embezzle state funds of Ukraine in especially big amounts via passing to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine obligations of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) corporation before the Defense Ministry of Russia for $405.5 million.
Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court ordered the arrest of Tymoshenko under the UESU case. Because of this, Tymoshenko is being held in the pretrial detention center of the Kachanivska colony in Kharkiv and is not involved in community work.
Irish bank foiled in attempt to recoup Ukraina mall for debt
Kyiv’s lucrative Ukraina shopping mall is on the verge of forever falling out of the reach of foreign shareholders following a court ruling on Dec. 23 that could render it bankrupt.
An Irish bank’s attempt to collect on debts by taking control of Kyiv’s landmark Ukraina shopping mall is being frustrated at every turn by a mysterious company whose representatives evidently wield strong influence in Ukraine.
On Dec. 23, a Kyiv court granted a $45.2 million claim filed by a British Virign Islands-registered firm against the property, putting the shopping mall on the verge of bankruptcy.
The ruling was just the latest move in a grueling battle over control of the 45,000 square-meter property.
One player is the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, a state-owned Irish financial institution which had lent money with the mall used as collateral. Some say that another group involved is Irish citizen Sean Quinn and his family, the former beneficiary owners of the estimated $50 million shopping center, who seem to be attempting to halt the transfer of properties to the lender.
Their legal duel is being fought in Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt judicial system, among other places.
Quinn and his family had borrowed heavily from IBRC – formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank – to amass a global business empire that included concrete factories, hotels, wind farms and the Ukraina department store, as well as other international properties.
Just under four years ago, Forbes magazine ranked Quinn as Ireland’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $6 billion. But his riches dissipated in the wake of the 2009 global economic recession.
And when Quinn’s conglomerate collapsed, his banker, IBRC, began collecting what remained of his assets.
Yet IBRC’s global fishing expedition has largely come up short in trying to recover Quinn’s $675 million worth of far-flung properties in India, Russia, Cyprus and Ukraine.
Quinn’s bankers suspect he and his family are still in control of these assets and are keeping them beyond their reach, including the Ukraina shopping mall.
Altogether, IBRC is trying to recoup $4 billion in alleged losses from Quinn Group, now in bankruptcy receivership, the holding company once controlled by Quinn and his family.
On Jan. 10 a Northern Ireland court denied Quinn's recent bankruptcy application.
Thus far, it appears IBRC has the weaker position, at least in its attempt to seize and access the estimated $10 million annual rent roll of the Kyiv property.
Just days before the New Year, Kyiv Commercial Court Judge Maria Litvinova granted a $42.5 million claim against Ukraina by a mysterious company named Lyndhurst Development Trading, which is based in the British Virgin Islands,
The amount is remarkably close to the estimated market value of Ukraina, which was built in 1963 and refurbished in 2003.
The shopping mall has more than 50 shops and an entertainment complex that includes bowling, a nightclub, cafes and movie theaters.
IBRC called the ruling “legalized robbery” and an unprecedented “cynical deprivation of property.”
A spokeswoman for Quinn Group denied any involvement in the dispute, which was even raised during talks between President Viktor Yanukovych and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny when the two met in Warsaw on Sept. 29.
However, The Irish Times reported that Quinn’s 30-year old daughter, Aoife, has said in an affidavit that the family is seeking to protect its international properties from being seized by IBRC and that the family disputes the bank’s right to the properties.
Since April, Ukraina’s former Quinn-backed management launched at least seven court cases in Kyiv courts, all of which have successfully thwarted IBRC from seizing the shopping mall. The mortgage loan’s validity is in dispute.
The 92.75 percent shares in Ukraina that belong to a Quinn Group subsidiary in Sweden have been frozen, and successive court injunctions have delayed the installment of a new company director, amid additional litigation.
To add a bizarre twist to an already complicated court fight in Ukraine, the shopping mall was represented in the Dec. 23 hearing by Larysa Yanez Puga, the director who had been ousted earlier by a newly appointed supervisory board.
The newly appointed director, Rostyslav Levinzon, was barred from participating in the legal proceeding.
In addition, the ousted supervisory board members -- on which Sean Sr. and Peter Quinn sat – miraculously reinstated Puga as director on Dec. 19 with the government registrar. Peter Quinn’s signature, as head of the former supervisory board appears in the registration file, a lawyer with Magisters, which is representing the Irish bank, told the Kyiv Post.
IBRC now expects the Quinn-backed manager of the Ukraina shopping mile to file a bankruptcy application that would deny the state-owned financial institution money owed to it.
The Irish bank’s efforts to claim and manage other foreign properties that formerly belonged to the Quinn family have also been met with stiff resistance.
The scope of the effort involves a portfolio that stretches over 70 companies in 14 countries. IBRC has so far failed to gain control of a $5 million site for a hotel in India, according to a recent news report. A court injunction there blocked the bank and the company behind the move is based in the United Arab Emirates, where registered corporate directors are kept confidential.
In another strikingly similar scenario, the $180 million Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow has also been kept out of the hands of IBRC. It has an estimated rent roll of $19 million. Courts in Moscow recently recognized a debt claim worth $100 million against Finansstroy, the company that operates Kutuzoff. The company behind the debt claim is registered in Belize.
The Irish Times recently uncovered an apparent link between the Belize and British Virgin Islands companies with Quinn’s nephew and son-in-law.
“We have no idea who the brain is,” Robert Dix, director of Quinn Holdings, Sweden told the New York Times.
His company is the nearly 93 percent shareholder in Ukraina. It was established by Quinn in order to minimize taxes and enable his five adult children to control his global portfolio. “But it has to be somebody very clever because it’s very consistent,” Dix told the newspaper.
After the court hearing in Ukraine on Dec. 23, IBRC swiftly moved to counter-attack. The High Court in Belfast has barred the debt claim against the Ukraina shopping mall and Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow. IBRC also secured mirror orders from the courts in the British Virgin Islands and Belize, a person with knowledge of the case said.
The Irish bank has also launched a public campaign and has called on Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to look into the situation.
According to The Irish Times, the court injunctions prohibit the Belize and British Virgin Island offshore companies from spending any money remitted to them as a result of the loan agreements.
IBRC has also threatened to disclose evidence of fraud as part of its efforts to seize the Kyiv and Moscow properties. The bank has already secured a court order in Belize to uncover the beneficiary owners of the company there and is seeking a similar order in the British Virgin Islands
An Irish bank’s attempt to collect on debts by taking control of Kyiv’s landmark Ukraina shopping mall is being frustrated at every turn by a mysterious company whose representatives evidently wield strong influence in Ukraine.
On Dec. 23, a Kyiv court granted a $45.2 million claim filed by a British Virign Islands-registered firm against the property, putting the shopping mall on the verge of bankruptcy.
The ruling was just the latest move in a grueling battle over control of the 45,000 square-meter property.
One player is the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, a state-owned Irish financial institution which had lent money with the mall used as collateral. Some say that another group involved is Irish citizen Sean Quinn and his family, the former beneficiary owners of the estimated $50 million shopping center, who seem to be attempting to halt the transfer of properties to the lender.
Their legal duel is being fought in Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt judicial system, among other places.
Quinn and his family had borrowed heavily from IBRC – formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank – to amass a global business empire that included concrete factories, hotels, wind farms and the Ukraina department store, as well as other international properties.
Just under four years ago, Forbes magazine ranked Quinn as Ireland’s richest man with a fortune estimated at $6 billion. But his riches dissipated in the wake of the 2009 global economic recession.
And when Quinn’s conglomerate collapsed, his banker, IBRC, began collecting what remained of his assets.
Yet IBRC’s global fishing expedition has largely come up short in trying to recover Quinn’s $675 million worth of far-flung properties in India, Russia, Cyprus and Ukraine.
Quinn’s bankers suspect he and his family are still in control of these assets and are keeping them beyond their reach, including the Ukraina shopping mall.
Altogether, IBRC is trying to recoup $4 billion in alleged losses from Quinn Group, now in bankruptcy receivership, the holding company once controlled by Quinn and his family.
On Jan. 10 a Northern Ireland court denied Quinn's recent bankruptcy application.
Thus far, it appears IBRC has the weaker position, at least in its attempt to seize and access the estimated $10 million annual rent roll of the Kyiv property.
Just days before the New Year, Kyiv Commercial Court Judge Maria Litvinova granted a $42.5 million claim against Ukraina by a mysterious company named Lyndhurst Development Trading, which is based in the British Virgin Islands,
The amount is remarkably close to the estimated market value of Ukraina, which was built in 1963 and refurbished in 2003.
The shopping mall has more than 50 shops and an entertainment complex that includes bowling, a nightclub, cafes and movie theaters.
IBRC called the ruling “legalized robbery” and an unprecedented “cynical deprivation of property.”
A spokeswoman for Quinn Group denied any involvement in the dispute, which was even raised during talks between President Viktor Yanukovych and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny when the two met in Warsaw on Sept. 29.
However, The Irish Times reported that Quinn’s 30-year old daughter, Aoife, has said in an affidavit that the family is seeking to protect its international properties from being seized by IBRC and that the family disputes the bank’s right to the properties.
Since April, Ukraina’s former Quinn-backed management launched at least seven court cases in Kyiv courts, all of which have successfully thwarted IBRC from seizing the shopping mall. The mortgage loan’s validity is in dispute.
The 92.75 percent shares in Ukraina that belong to a Quinn Group subsidiary in Sweden have been frozen, and successive court injunctions have delayed the installment of a new company director, amid additional litigation.
To add a bizarre twist to an already complicated court fight in Ukraine, the shopping mall was represented in the Dec. 23 hearing by Larysa Yanez Puga, the director who had been ousted earlier by a newly appointed supervisory board.
The newly appointed director, Rostyslav Levinzon, was barred from participating in the legal proceeding.
In addition, the ousted supervisory board members -- on which Sean Sr. and Peter Quinn sat – miraculously reinstated Puga as director on Dec. 19 with the government registrar. Peter Quinn’s signature, as head of the former supervisory board appears in the registration file, a lawyer with Magisters, which is representing the Irish bank, told the Kyiv Post.
IBRC now expects the Quinn-backed manager of the Ukraina shopping mile to file a bankruptcy application that would deny the state-owned financial institution money owed to it.
The Irish bank’s efforts to claim and manage other foreign properties that formerly belonged to the Quinn family have also been met with stiff resistance.
The scope of the effort involves a portfolio that stretches over 70 companies in 14 countries. IBRC has so far failed to gain control of a $5 million site for a hotel in India, according to a recent news report. A court injunction there blocked the bank and the company behind the move is based in the United Arab Emirates, where registered corporate directors are kept confidential.
In another strikingly similar scenario, the $180 million Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow has also been kept out of the hands of IBRC. It has an estimated rent roll of $19 million. Courts in Moscow recently recognized a debt claim worth $100 million against Finansstroy, the company that operates Kutuzoff. The company behind the debt claim is registered in Belize.
The Irish Times recently uncovered an apparent link between the Belize and British Virgin Islands companies with Quinn’s nephew and son-in-law.
“We have no idea who the brain is,” Robert Dix, director of Quinn Holdings, Sweden told the New York Times.
His company is the nearly 93 percent shareholder in Ukraina. It was established by Quinn in order to minimize taxes and enable his five adult children to control his global portfolio. “But it has to be somebody very clever because it’s very consistent,” Dix told the newspaper.
After the court hearing in Ukraine on Dec. 23, IBRC swiftly moved to counter-attack. The High Court in Belfast has barred the debt claim against the Ukraina shopping mall and Kutuzoff Tower in Moscow. IBRC also secured mirror orders from the courts in the British Virgin Islands and Belize, a person with knowledge of the case said.
The Irish bank has also launched a public campaign and has called on Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to look into the situation.
According to The Irish Times, the court injunctions prohibit the Belize and British Virgin Island offshore companies from spending any money remitted to them as a result of the loan agreements.
IBRC has also threatened to disclose evidence of fraud as part of its efforts to seize the Kyiv and Moscow properties. The bank has already secured a court order in Belize to uncover the beneficiary owners of the company there and is seeking a similar order in the British Virgin Islands
Russian billionaire battle reaches London court climax
LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A gargantuan lawsuit between two of post-Soviet Russia's richest and most powerful men reached its climax in a London courtroom on Tuesday, with lawyers for tycoon Boris Berezovsky making their case that he was extorted into turning the crown jewel of his business empire over to billionaire rival Roman Abramovich.
The $6 billion case has thrown a spotlight on the shady business dealings of post-Soviet Russia, when opaque privatisation deals turned a handful of insiders into the owners of multi-billion dollar natural resources firms.
It has also captivated the legal industry in Britain, whose globally respected, tradition-bound courts - where lawyers still wear powdered wigs - have become the venue of choice for rich Russians to sue each other, generating massive fees.
Berezovsky, 65, accuses Abramovich - known in Britain as the owner of Chelsea soccer club - of intimidating him into selling his stake in oil firm Sibneft at a knockdown price. Abramovich, 45, denies Berezovsky ever had an interest in Sibneft.
Speaking in a courtroom packed with bodyguards and ranks of lawyers and aides on Tuesday, Berezovsky's lawyer devoted a large part of his closing statement to examining what he said was untruthful evidence by Abramovich and his witnesses.
"The dishonesty of Mr Abramovich and his key witnesses, their cynical manipulation of evidence and indeed of the trial process, is...perhaps the most important of the general points which my Lady will wish to have in mind when weighing up the evidence and making findings of fact in this case," Laurence Rabinowitz told judge Elizabeth Gloster.
A Kremlin insider in the 1990s under former President Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky left Russia after falling out with Yeltsin's hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin. He says he gave up his Sibneft stake because he feared that if he refused, Abramovich would ensure Putin had the shares expropriated.
Abramovich says he paid Berezovsky $2 billion for his political patronage and protection from criminal gangs, but not as dividends from Sibneft because Berezovsky was never an owner.
Abramovich has since sold Sibneft to the Russian state natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
The trial has been tabloid fodder in Britain ever since a tussle between the two tycoons and their retinues of bodyguards in a Hermes luxury boutique in London, when Berezovsky spotted Abramovich and served him with a writ.
During Tuesday's hearing, Berezovsky appeared relaxed, often laughing and conferring with his younger girlfriend. Abramovich, sitting at the opposite end of the courtroom, listened intently to the Russian translation of the proceedings in headphones.
The trial, which started in early October, is being followed closely by Russia watchers from London and Moscow for new clues into Russian business and politics under Putin, now prime minister but expected to become president again this year.
Abramovich and Berezovsky were close allies when making their fortunes in Russia in the 1990s under Yeltsin.
Since then, Berezovsky has become a sworn enemy of Putin, fending off requests to extradite him from London on Russian criminal charges by arguing that he could not get a fair trial in Russia. Abramovich became a Putin ally and prospered.
The $6 billion case has thrown a spotlight on the shady business dealings of post-Soviet Russia, when opaque privatisation deals turned a handful of insiders into the owners of multi-billion dollar natural resources firms.
It has also captivated the legal industry in Britain, whose globally respected, tradition-bound courts - where lawyers still wear powdered wigs - have become the venue of choice for rich Russians to sue each other, generating massive fees.
Berezovsky, 65, accuses Abramovich - known in Britain as the owner of Chelsea soccer club - of intimidating him into selling his stake in oil firm Sibneft at a knockdown price. Abramovich, 45, denies Berezovsky ever had an interest in Sibneft.
Speaking in a courtroom packed with bodyguards and ranks of lawyers and aides on Tuesday, Berezovsky's lawyer devoted a large part of his closing statement to examining what he said was untruthful evidence by Abramovich and his witnesses.
"The dishonesty of Mr Abramovich and his key witnesses, their cynical manipulation of evidence and indeed of the trial process, is...perhaps the most important of the general points which my Lady will wish to have in mind when weighing up the evidence and making findings of fact in this case," Laurence Rabinowitz told judge Elizabeth Gloster.
A Kremlin insider in the 1990s under former President Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky left Russia after falling out with Yeltsin's hand-picked successor Vladimir Putin. He says he gave up his Sibneft stake because he feared that if he refused, Abramovich would ensure Putin had the shares expropriated.
Abramovich says he paid Berezovsky $2 billion for his political patronage and protection from criminal gangs, but not as dividends from Sibneft because Berezovsky was never an owner.
Abramovich has since sold Sibneft to the Russian state natural gas monopoly Gazprom.
The trial has been tabloid fodder in Britain ever since a tussle between the two tycoons and their retinues of bodyguards in a Hermes luxury boutique in London, when Berezovsky spotted Abramovich and served him with a writ.
During Tuesday's hearing, Berezovsky appeared relaxed, often laughing and conferring with his younger girlfriend. Abramovich, sitting at the opposite end of the courtroom, listened intently to the Russian translation of the proceedings in headphones.
The trial, which started in early October, is being followed closely by Russia watchers from London and Moscow for new clues into Russian business and politics under Putin, now prime minister but expected to become president again this year.
Abramovich and Berezovsky were close allies when making their fortunes in Russia in the 1990s under Yeltsin.
Since then, Berezovsky has become a sworn enemy of Putin, fending off requests to extradite him from London on Russian criminal charges by arguing that he could not get a fair trial in Russia. Abramovich became a Putin ally and prospered.
Ukrainian Ex-Minister Wants Witnesses Forced To Testify
KIEV, Ukraine -- Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has requested that witnesses in his trial be forced to attend and testify.
Lutsenko, one of the leaders of the Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense (NUNS) parliament faction, was arrested in December 2010 and went on trial on May 23 for abuse of office and misappropriation of funds while he was interior minister.
At the trial on January 16, Lutsenko stated that he had looked through the list of the witnesses in his case prepared by the Prosecutor-General's Office and discovered that 10 of them have never been summoned to court and some 45 individuals who were officially summoned to his trial never appeared.
"More than 20 of those 45 potential witnesses have been summoned to court three or even five times," Lutsenko said.
"I do not understand why the court does not force those people to come and testify in the hearings."
According to one charge against Lutsenko, he illegally helped his former personal driver, Leonid Pristuplyuk, to obtain an apartment in Kiev.
In court on January 16, Lutsenko asked why no one from the commission that made the decision to allocate the apartment to Pristuplyuk was invited to testify.
Lutsenko, 47, also said he fears that his case may be forced to a quick conclusion.
He said he is innocent of all charges and his case is politically motivated.
In October, members of the European Parliament officially expressed concern about the continued detention of Lutsenko and the jailing of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the premiers whose cabinet he served in.
Lutsenko was interior minister in 2005-06 and from 2007 to 2010.
He became publicly known as one of the leaders of the 2005 Orange Revolution.
Lutsenko, one of the leaders of the Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense (NUNS) parliament faction, was arrested in December 2010 and went on trial on May 23 for abuse of office and misappropriation of funds while he was interior minister.
At the trial on January 16, Lutsenko stated that he had looked through the list of the witnesses in his case prepared by the Prosecutor-General's Office and discovered that 10 of them have never been summoned to court and some 45 individuals who were officially summoned to his trial never appeared.
"More than 20 of those 45 potential witnesses have been summoned to court three or even five times," Lutsenko said.
"I do not understand why the court does not force those people to come and testify in the hearings."
According to one charge against Lutsenko, he illegally helped his former personal driver, Leonid Pristuplyuk, to obtain an apartment in Kiev.
In court on January 16, Lutsenko asked why no one from the commission that made the decision to allocate the apartment to Pristuplyuk was invited to testify.
Lutsenko, 47, also said he fears that his case may be forced to a quick conclusion.
He said he is innocent of all charges and his case is politically motivated.
In October, members of the European Parliament officially expressed concern about the continued detention of Lutsenko and the jailing of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the premiers whose cabinet he served in.
Lutsenko was interior minister in 2005-06 and from 2007 to 2010.
He became publicly known as one of the leaders of the 2005 Orange Revolution.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Moscow crime down in 2011 -- mayor
A downward trend in Moscow’s crime levels in 2011, continues Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin as saying at a ceremony in the Moscow prosecutor's office dedicated to the 290th anniversary of the Prosecutors Office in Russia.
“It is particularly important to continue to reduce the number of serious and grave crimes, which fell last year by 10 percent. Killings declined by 15 percent, armed assault by 13 percent, robberies by 16 percent, burglaries by more than 20 percent,” said the mayor. He added that it was most important to build on the trend.
“It is particularly important to continue to reduce the number of serious and grave crimes, which fell last year by 10 percent. Killings declined by 15 percent, armed assault by 13 percent, robberies by 16 percent, burglaries by more than 20 percent,” said the mayor. He added that it was most important to build on the trend.
Killer of Kostroma journalist avoids trial
he man who killed a Russian journalist in 2001 will not face trial because the statute of limitations for the crime has expired, a police spokesperson said.
The journalist, 32-year-old Elina Voronova, who worked for the Rus television and radio company in the central Russian city of Kostroma, was killed near her home on the night of November 5, 2001.
Voronova was attacked on her way home from the library by a group of minors, one of whom tried to rape her. She was able to fight off that assault but was brutally beaten and ultimately thrown down a well, where her body was found the next day.
An autopsy determined that her death was the result of grievous head injuries and hypothermia.
“The suspect (in the murder) was detained in 2001 but we did not have enough evidence to charge him,” a senior police investigator in Kostroma, Ilyaz Abdurakhmanov, said.
The investigation was suspended. Years later, the case was reopened and a reconstruction of the crime obtained new evidence that compelled the suspect to confess his guilt. However, by that time the statute of limitations had expired.
The suspect's identity has not been disclosed because he was 17 at the time of the crime. However, it is known that he has six other criminal convictions and is currently serving a prison sentence.
The journalist, 32-year-old Elina Voronova, who worked for the Rus television and radio company in the central Russian city of Kostroma, was killed near her home on the night of November 5, 2001.
Voronova was attacked on her way home from the library by a group of minors, one of whom tried to rape her. She was able to fight off that assault but was brutally beaten and ultimately thrown down a well, where her body was found the next day.
An autopsy determined that her death was the result of grievous head injuries and hypothermia.
“The suspect (in the murder) was detained in 2001 but we did not have enough evidence to charge him,” a senior police investigator in Kostroma, Ilyaz Abdurakhmanov, said.
The investigation was suspended. Years later, the case was reopened and a reconstruction of the crime obtained new evidence that compelled the suspect to confess his guilt. However, by that time the statute of limitations had expired.
The suspect's identity has not been disclosed because he was 17 at the time of the crime. However, it is known that he has six other criminal convictions and is currently serving a prison sentence.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Ukraine-Born Demjanjuk Asks Judge To Reconsider Citizenship Bid
TOLEDO, USA -- Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk wants a federal judge to reconsider a decision denying his bid to regain his U.S. citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster had rejected the citizenship request just over two weeks ago, saying Demjanjuk lied about where he was during World War II.
Demjanjuk's attorney asked the judge Thursday to reconsider the request, saying he had not seen all the newly discovered documents that could help his cause.
The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942.
He was convicted in May by a German court that found he had served as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Demjanjuk cannot leave Germany because he has no passport after being stripped of his U.S. citizenship ahead of his deportation to Germany in 2009.
Demjanjuk, who is in his 90s, has been in poor health for years and has been in and out of a hospital since his conviction.
Federal authorities had said Demjanjuk, who has denied serving as a guard at any Nazi camp, was trying to cast himself as a victim following his conviction on more than 28,000 counts of accessory to murder.
His lawyers argue that the U.S. government failed to disclose important evidence, including a 1985 secret FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press that indicates the FBI believed a Nazi ID card purportedly showing that he served as a death camp guard was a Soviet-made fake.
Demjanjuk's public defender, Dennis Terez, said in the latest filing that the judge should give him the chance to question the government's claims and ask what caused a retired FBI agent to become suspicious of documents released by the Soviet Union.
The government has submitted an affidavit from former FBI agent Thomas Martin who said the March 4, 1985, report written by him was based on speculation about a Soviet forgery, not any investigation.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster had rejected the citizenship request just over two weeks ago, saying Demjanjuk lied about where he was during World War II.
Demjanjuk's attorney asked the judge Thursday to reconsider the request, saying he had not seen all the newly discovered documents that could help his cause.
The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in 1942.
He was convicted in May by a German court that found he had served as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Demjanjuk cannot leave Germany because he has no passport after being stripped of his U.S. citizenship ahead of his deportation to Germany in 2009.
Demjanjuk, who is in his 90s, has been in poor health for years and has been in and out of a hospital since his conviction.
Federal authorities had said Demjanjuk, who has denied serving as a guard at any Nazi camp, was trying to cast himself as a victim following his conviction on more than 28,000 counts of accessory to murder.
His lawyers argue that the U.S. government failed to disclose important evidence, including a 1985 secret FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press that indicates the FBI believed a Nazi ID card purportedly showing that he served as a death camp guard was a Soviet-made fake.
Demjanjuk's public defender, Dennis Terez, said in the latest filing that the judge should give him the chance to question the government's claims and ask what caused a retired FBI agent to become suspicious of documents released by the Soviet Union.
The government has submitted an affidavit from former FBI agent Thomas Martin who said the March 4, 1985, report written by him was based on speculation about a Soviet forgery, not any investigation.
Russian blogger Navalny unmasks 'Kremlin' photo smear
The Russian blogger leading Russia's vote-rigging protests has accused supporters of Vladimir Putin of seeking to smear him with a fake photo.
Alexei Navalny proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery when he published the original on his blog.
The faked photo shows Mr Navalny alongside fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.
Protesters fear the March presidential vote may be rigged to favour Mr Putin.
Currently prime minister, he is standing for re-election after serving two previous terms as president.
Alleged fraud at parliamentary elections in December sparked the biggest anti-government rallies seen in Moscow since Soviet times.
Mr Navalny, a lawyer who campaigns against corruption, was a key speaker at the last rally, on 24 December, which drew an estimated 100,000 people.
Young activists sporting blue rain jackets marked "Vladimir Putin" were spotted handing out newspapers containing the forged photo in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The photo shows Mr Navalny and Mr Berezovsky standing beside each other, smiling for the camera, with the caption: "Alexei Navalny has never made any secret of the fact that the oligarch Boris Berezovsky gives him money to fight Putin."
Russia has been trying for years to extradite Mr Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003. He is wanted on fraud charges, which he denies.
In a blog posting which led with the words "News from [Vladimir] Putin's electoral campaign", Mr Navalny published the original photo, sent to him months earlier by photographer Alexei Yushenkov as a souvenir.
Taken on 25 May in the offices of Russian radio station Moscow Echo, the snap shows the blogger alongside Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who has since declared himself a candidate in the March election.
On his own blog, Mr Yushenkov confirmed that the photo had never been published because of its poor quality and he surmised that it had been stolen when Mr Navalny's email account was hacked last year.
Russian bloggers have been posting their own parodies of the fake photo, some of which were published on Mr Navalny's blog.
The photozhabas, as digitally altered images are known in Russian internet slang, show the blogger posing with everyone from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to Bender, the robot in the cartoon Futurama.
In another development, the Urals editor of popular Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty has denied any link to the doctored photograph.
Dmitry Bondarev told the BBC's Russian Service that his publication had no connection to the other paper, which bears the name "Argumenty i Fakty - Urals Digest" and looks similar.
A note on the paper with the fake photo, which is reportedly a special edition praising Mr Putin and trashing the opposition, says that it was compiled by the All-Russia Popular Front - a political coalition launched by Mr Putin in May.
According to Yekaterinburg blogger nuclOid, 80,000 copies were printed.
Alexei Navalny proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery when he published the original on his blog.
The faked photo shows Mr Navalny alongside fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.
Protesters fear the March presidential vote may be rigged to favour Mr Putin.
Currently prime minister, he is standing for re-election after serving two previous terms as president.
Alleged fraud at parliamentary elections in December sparked the biggest anti-government rallies seen in Moscow since Soviet times.
Mr Navalny, a lawyer who campaigns against corruption, was a key speaker at the last rally, on 24 December, which drew an estimated 100,000 people.
Young activists sporting blue rain jackets marked "Vladimir Putin" were spotted handing out newspapers containing the forged photo in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The photo shows Mr Navalny and Mr Berezovsky standing beside each other, smiling for the camera, with the caption: "Alexei Navalny has never made any secret of the fact that the oligarch Boris Berezovsky gives him money to fight Putin."
Russia has been trying for years to extradite Mr Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2003. He is wanted on fraud charges, which he denies.
In a blog posting which led with the words "News from [Vladimir] Putin's electoral campaign", Mr Navalny published the original photo, sent to him months earlier by photographer Alexei Yushenkov as a souvenir.
Taken on 25 May in the offices of Russian radio station Moscow Echo, the snap shows the blogger alongside Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who has since declared himself a candidate in the March election.
On his own blog, Mr Yushenkov confirmed that the photo had never been published because of its poor quality and he surmised that it had been stolen when Mr Navalny's email account was hacked last year.
Russian bloggers have been posting their own parodies of the fake photo, some of which were published on Mr Navalny's blog.
The photozhabas, as digitally altered images are known in Russian internet slang, show the blogger posing with everyone from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to Bender, the robot in the cartoon Futurama.
In another development, the Urals editor of popular Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty has denied any link to the doctored photograph.
Dmitry Bondarev told the BBC's Russian Service that his publication had no connection to the other paper, which bears the name "Argumenty i Fakty - Urals Digest" and looks similar.
A note on the paper with the fake photo, which is reportedly a special edition praising Mr Putin and trashing the opposition, says that it was compiled by the All-Russia Popular Front - a political coalition launched by Mr Putin in May.
According to Yekaterinburg blogger nuclOid, 80,000 copies were printed.
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Ukrainian Sailors From Nemo Vessel To Get Visas To Return Home Soon, Says Foreign Ministry
ANKARA, Turkey -- Ankara has given formal permission to issue visas to six Ukrainian citizens, crewmembers of the Nemo cargo ship, arrested in Turkey.
The issue of the return of the Ukrainians to their homeland is being settled, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday.
"According to the information received from the Consulate General of Ukraine in Istanbul, at 1810 on January 5, the Kocaeli port police received official permission from Ankara to issue visas for all six Ukrainian citizens - former members of the crew of the Nemo vessel," the Foreign Ministry said.
The Ukrainian Consulate General is currently settling the issue of accommodating the sailors for the night and their return to Ukraine.
The case is controlled by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the press service reported.
As reported, seven Ukrainian sailors from the Nemo, an Estonian cargo ship that has been under arrest in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) for a year, went on a hunger strike in a Turkish prison in the town of Derince on January 4, 2012.
The dry cargo ship was arrested by local authorities on January 11, 2011 due to the debt of the ship's bankrupt owner.
The ship was transferred to Swedbank Estonia due to the debtor's loans, but the crew then refused to leave the Nemo without getting salaries.
On December 28, 2011, the sailors left the ship and were placed in a Turkish police department, waiting for the permission to leave the country.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry reported that since December 28, the sailors were in the police department for work with foreigners in the city of Izmit, Kocaeli province.
The issue of the return of the Ukrainians to their homeland is being settled, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported on Thursday.
"According to the information received from the Consulate General of Ukraine in Istanbul, at 1810 on January 5, the Kocaeli port police received official permission from Ankara to issue visas for all six Ukrainian citizens - former members of the crew of the Nemo vessel," the Foreign Ministry said.
The Ukrainian Consulate General is currently settling the issue of accommodating the sailors for the night and their return to Ukraine.
The case is controlled by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the press service reported.
As reported, seven Ukrainian sailors from the Nemo, an Estonian cargo ship that has been under arrest in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey) for a year, went on a hunger strike in a Turkish prison in the town of Derince on January 4, 2012.
The dry cargo ship was arrested by local authorities on January 11, 2011 due to the debt of the ship's bankrupt owner.
The ship was transferred to Swedbank Estonia due to the debtor's loans, but the crew then refused to leave the Nemo without getting salaries.
On December 28, 2011, the sailors left the ship and were placed in a Turkish police department, waiting for the permission to leave the country.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry reported that since December 28, the sailors were in the police department for work with foreigners in the city of Izmit, Kocaeli province.
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