The European Court of Human Rights has accepted the third complaint from Dmytro Reva, a defendant in a case on a series of explosions in Dnipropetrovsk in April 2012.
Reva’s sister and defense lawyer, Oksana Tomchuk, told journalists on July 16 that the complaint deals with the violations of the detainee’s right to a private and family life.
“Dmytro (Reva), who has been kept in Dnipropetrovsk jail for more than a year, has been denied meetings with his relatives nine times. Taking into account the practice of the European Court, the defense team considers this to be a form of pressure on the defendant, who from the first days of his detention has denied any involvement in the preparation and execution of the explosions, and whose testimony is fully confirmed by the case materials,” Tomchuk said.
According to her, the complaint also sets out the facts of violation of the presumption of innocence by state officials, who immediately after the arrest of four suspects started trying to convince the public through mass media that all the detainees (including Reva) were behind the crimes.
Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, head of the SBU investigation group Vitaliy Mayakovsky, MP Hennady Moskal, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Vilkul, Assistant Chief of Staff of the Antiterrorist Center of the SBU Oleksandr Khrystenko, Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor Natalia Marchuk and her deputy Oleh Pahnyts allowed themselves such statements, Tomchuk said.
The first two complaints to the court deal with the illegal detention and imprisonment. All three complaints were united into single case Reva vs. Ukraine.
According to Tomchuk, the defense team was preparing another complaint against the violation of Reva’s right to fair trial. The complaint will expose the reluctance of prosecutors and judges to prosecute those involved in falsification of evidence against the defendant, she said.
On April 27, 2012, four explosions occurred in a one-hour span in Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 31 people, including 10 teenagers, while 26 victims were hospitalized. All of the explosive devices were planted in concrete trash containers.
In May 2012, police officers arrested four residents of Dnipropetrovsk. In particular, Viktor Sukachov and Vitaliy Fedoriak were charged with the creation of a terrorist group (Part 1, Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code), attempt to commit a crime (Part 2, Article 15 of the Criminal Code), a terrorist attack committed on preliminary collusion by a group of persons, which caused the deaths of people (Parts 2-3, Article 258) and illegal handling of explosives (Part 1, Article 263 of the Criminal Code). Lev Prosvirnin and Reva were charged with a terrorist attack committed on preliminary collusion by a group of persons (Part 5, Article 27, Part 2, Article 258 of the Criminal Code), and Prosvirnin was separately charged with the illegal handling of explosives (Part 1, Article 263 of the Criminal Code).
All of them were also accused of organizing three terrorist attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia in October-November 2011.
At a meeting of the Industrialny District Court of Dnipropetrovsk on December 25, defendant Fedoriak fully admitted his guilt in the crime, while defendant Sukavhov partly admitted his guilt, saying he did not understand everything in the indictment.
Defendants Prosvirnin and Reva pleaded not guilty.
The court received for consideration 25 civil lawsuits for a total of Hr 1.522 million.
