Coynash: Checking commitment to European values
An appeal court hearing in the Zaporizhya Church bomb trial has been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 18, though what can be examined there is anybody’s guess. On Oct. 1 it transpired that there was no indictment in the case file. Put most bluntly: three young men have received 14 and 15 year prison sentences. Decide yourself why.
The appeal court judges pointed out that the lack of an indictment stopped them in their tracks. They asked what exactly the defence was appealing against if the indictment, changed at the end of November 2012, was not in the court material. After more than three years of total contempt for the law in this notorious case, the court’s bemusement was positively cheering. Their next step, however, was disturbing. Instead of declaring a mistrial, as the law demands, they allowed the prosecutor’s application for a “check”.