Reformer of the week – Families and lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters
The families and lawyers of EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrators said in a statement on Oct. 28 that investigations into the 2014 mass murders and other crimes may collapse. They had set up a group called the Advocacy Advisory Panel and have consistently protected EuroMaidan cases from political interference over the past years.
The cases, including those into the murder of more than 100 protesters on the eve of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s flight from Ukraine, must be transferred from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the State Investigation Bureau in November under the law. But the bureau is incapable of investigating them because there are no credible investigators there and no separate unit that could handle the cases, the Advocacy Advisory Panel said. The bureau did not respond to a request for comment.
The Advocacy Advisory Panel also lambasted the Oct. 23 dismissal by Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka of Sergii Gorbatuk, the top investigator in charge of EuroMaidan cases praised by the panel.
The reason given for the firing was that Gorbatuk refused to be vetted under Riaboshapka’s procedure. Gorbatuk said its procedure violates the law but agreed to be vetted under a procedure that does not contradict it.
Riaboshapka dismissed the accusations on Oct. 21, saying that all employees must be subject to the same procedure.
The Advocacy Advisory Panel called for the appointment of Gorbatuk as the top investigator for EuroMaidan cases at the State Investigation Bureau. They said that investigators who worked under Gorbartuk must be transferred to the State Investigation Bureau to guarantee a proper investigation of the cases.
On Oct. 30, the Advocacy Advisory Panel criticized Riaboshapka’s appointment of Viktor Mysyak as the main prosecutor overseeing State Investigation Bureau investigators in EuroMaidan cases. They have previously accused him of sabotaging EuroMaidan investigations, which Mysyak denies.
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Donsky, who has been praised by the Advocacy Advisory Panel, has been appointed as a deputy to Mysyak. The Prosecutor General’s Office has denied accusations that the EuroMaidan cases are on the verge of collapse.
Anti-reformer of the week – Viktor Mysyak
Viktor Mysyak was appointed by Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka as the head of the prosecution unit for investigations into the EuroMaidan Revolution on Oct. 28.
The families and lawyers of slain EuroMaidan protesters and former investigator Sergii Gorbatuk have criticized the move, accusing Mysyak and his former boss Serhiy Kiz of sabotaging EuroMaidan investigations.
“I’m not sabotaging any cases,” Mysyak told the Kyiv Post, saying that he was instead planning to speed them up.
Specifically, Mysyak, a former deputy and protégé of Kiz, has been accused of blocking notices of suspicion for judges of the Constitutional Court, the Kyiv Commercial Court and district courts. Mysyak denied these accusations.
He has also been accused of removing corruption cases against ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies from Gorbatuk’s unit in order to block them. Mysyak told the Kyiv Post he believed corruption cases should be separated from EuroMaidan Revolution cases and must be investigated by separate units.
The lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters and Gorbatuk have also accused Kiz and Mysyak of supporting unlawful decisions to close Yanukovych-era cases, including that against ex-Verkhovna Rada Deputy Speaker Igor Kaletnik. Mysyak denied these accusations, saying the closed cases were not within his jurisdiction.
Kiz was promoted to deputy prosecutor general in July before Riaboshapka took over as prosecutor general. The Schemes investigative show reported that Kiz was promoted due to backing from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Bohdan. Kiz and Bohdan did not respond to requests for comment.
