If President Viktor Yanukovych is serious about turning a lawless nation into a law-abiding one, he should seek legislation to create an independent prosecutor, police and special court to investigate crimes involving high-level current and former officials.
All trials should be public and decided by juries in major cases.
The recent criminal charges against ex-President Leonid Kuchma show why.
If the Melnychenko tapes are to be believed, Kuchma ran the nation as a fiefdom – deciding who would be allowed to steal billions, who would get prized state assets and who would go to jail.
After nearly 11 years of dormancy, cover-ups, incompetence and bowing to political interference, prosecutors suddenly and mysteriously came alive on March 24 and charged Kuchma with abusing his presidential powers in giving orders that led to the Sept. 16, 2000 murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
It’s a logical outcome, considering the evidence. Three Interior Ministry police officers are in prison for the crime, a fourth is in jail as a suspect and a key Kuchma ally connected to the crime – Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko – is dead from two gunshot wounds to the head, inflicted on March 4, 2005.
From what we can see, charges could have come in 2000 if Ukraine had honest leadership at the top, as well as independent police officers, prosecutors and judges.
Instead, until Kuchma left office in international shame in 2005, no progress came in solving the Gongadze murder. Kuchma likely played a big role in stifling progress and, if he did, he should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice as well as murder, if that’s what the facts show. He proclaims his innocence.
Kuchma ran the nation as a tyrant serving the interests of greedy and corrupt oligarchs for a decade, failing to create strong democratic institutions. Now he’s paying the price.
Distrustful of the institutions he played such a large role in subverting, Kuchma has decided to go abroad and hire noted U.S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz, one of America’s great legal minds.
Ukrainian lawyer Ihor Fomin explained the decision to retain Dershowitz this way: “I believe that his role is very important, because we know how our justice system and our law enforcement system are working,” Fomin said. “What is happening now is far from being legal.”
Exactly. And everyone, especially Kuchma, knows how untrustworthy the court system is in Ukraine. He spent a decade overseeing corrupt and politically subservient cops, prosecutors and judges.
According to the tapes recorded by ex-Kuchma bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, Kuchma allegedly ordered elections rigged, judges dismissed and journalists threatened.
Prosecutors in this nation wield too much power, especially in light of their poor track record in solving crimes and long history of political subservience.
If the Melnychenko tapes are to be believed, Kuchma ran the nation as a fiefdom – deciding who would be allowed to steal billions, who would get prized state assets and who would go to jail.
There’s a temptation to feel schadenfreude at Kuchma’s plight over the Frankenstein-like court system he perpetuated.
But the truth is that no one will believe any outcome that comes from a prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka, who admitted upon appointment last year that he saw his role as carrying out the president’s instructions.
And this lack of trust is only one reason why the nation’s interest will be better served by independent prosecutors, police and judges tasked to get to the bottom of all of the great unsolved crimes, including the Gongadze murder and the validity of the Melnychenko tapes.
A system of jury trials, something virtually unheard of in Ukraine, is warranted. And, perhaps, Dershowitz is not the only outsider who should be brought in. There’s a place for outside help on the prosecutor’s side, too.
Another reason to call for independent inquiries is the lack of transparency, competence and due process in current investigations. Prosecutors are feverishly engaged in setting up personal encounters among key players in the Gongadze case – such as face-to-face debates between Kuchma and Melnychenko.
These dramatic antics are low-brow nonsense.
Prosecutors in this nation wield too much power, especially in light of their poor track record in solving crimes and long history of political subservience.
A well-functioning law enforcement system reveals information to the public in stages throughout the case.
These disclosures are crucial to showing the public, as well as the accused, that law enforcers are doing their work competently, impartially and transparently.
In Ukraine, by contrast, prosecutors tell the public whatever they want, whenever they want. They engage in selective persecution and double standards, obviously bowing to political demands.
Now the public is feverishly engaged in debates over the Yanukovych administration’s aims – whether it’s to exonerate Kuchma, crucify him or truly seek justice. Debates are being revived over whether the Melnychenko tapes are real or not.
Competent investigations untainted by politics would settle these matters once and for all, with credible evidence and public trials that help the nation sort out who deserves to be in prison and who deserves to be vindicated.
Sadly, such credible truths are not going to come from anyone playing a leading role among today’s judges, prosecutors or police.
