On the official website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as OHCHR), on 12 March, 2019, there was posted the Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine for the period from 16 November, 2018 to 15 February, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the Report).
After having reviewed the Report and analyzed the presented information, in particular in Chapter V Accountability and administration of justice, we see a highly negative assessment by OHCHR of the situation concerning the administration of justice in Ukraine. Special attention is paid to long-term pre-trial detention and the use of pressure to obtain confessions or conclude a plea bargain, including persons allegedly belonging to or associated with the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic. In its Report, OHCHR expresses deep concern regarding protraction of legal proceedings in Ukraine, for which reason those accused of complicity with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic consider the admission of their alleged guilt as the only way to release them from custody and to stop physical and psychological violence used against them. Thus, for instance, according to the documents held by OHCHR, there were cases in which persons held in custody in the Kharkov remand prison (SIZO) of Ukraine have been repeatedly placed in punishment cell during the judicial proceedings, have been physically abused and, as a result, were taken to the courtroom with injuries on their faces and bodies. The administration of the Kharkov SIZO of Ukraine did not incur liability for these deeds.
The OHCHR Report focuses on the facts of intimidation by far-right members and Ukrainian nationalists of judges, defendants and lawyers when considering high-profile criminal cases related to the armed conflict in the Eastern Ukraine.
During the reporting period, OHCHR observed repeated violations of the right to an open court hearing, when judges held criminal hearings in their offices and not in the courtroom, thereby violating the principles of publicity and openness.
As it appears from the Report, the OHCHR is concerned regarding the absence of results in investigating the killing of protesters during protests on the Maidan, acts of violence on 2 May, 2014 in Odessa, as well as the murder in 2015 of journalist Oles Buzina.
As we can see, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is concerned regarding the number of unanswered questions about the omissions and indifference of the Ukrainian authorities, who came to rule in a bloody way, and because of which blood is still being shed and people disappear without a trace in SIZOs, SSU and other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.