On Nov. 25, Yevhenia Zakrevska, a lawyer for EuroMaidan protesters, entered the fifth day of her hunger strike against what she believes to be the collapse of investigations into crimes committed against protesters during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
While the revolution ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych, who currently lives in Russia, about 100 protesters were also killed by government security forces.
Earlier in November, EuroMaidan cases were transferred from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the State Investigation Bureau, which Zakrevska believes has already led to the suspension of the cases.
Many of the investigators and prosecutors that previously worked on EuroMaidan cases have also been fired or suspended, a situation that lawyers and families of EuroMaidan protesters fear may lead to the collapse of all EuroMaidan investigations.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka and State Investigation Bureau Chief Roman Truba have denied accusations that the EuroMaidan investigations would be buried.
“Not a single one of these cases will be lost,” Riaboshapka said at a news briefing on Nov. 20.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the State Investigation Bureau did not respond to requests for comment on Zakrevska’s hunger strike.
Transfer of cases
The Prosecutor General’s Office started transferring most of the EuroMaidan cases to the State Investigation Bureau, which is headed by Truba, in November. The transfer is in line with the strategy of stripping the Prosecutor General’s Office of investigative functions.
Some of the EuroMaidan cases were also transferred to the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine, while Yanukovych-era corruption cases were transferred to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
Zakrevska and Sergii Gorbatuk, the former top investigator for EuroMaidan cases, argue that the State Investigation Bureau has no investigators who are familiar with the EuroMaidan cases, which would mean the cases would have to start over from scratch.
Lawyers and families of EuroMaidan protesters also say that Truba, who they suspect of having close ties to Yanukovych’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Andriy Portnov, is interested in derailing the investigations, an allegation Truba denies. Portnov is a vehement opponent of the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Portnov has initiated numerous criminal cases pursued by Truba’s State Investigation Bureau against ex-President Petro Poroshenko and has also leaked information about the bureau’s investigations through his Telegram channel.
Truba has also been accused of a conflict of interest connected to his prosecution of EuroMaidan activist Andriy Shevtsiv for blocking traffic on a highway in Lviv Oblast in November 2013, when Truba was a prosecutor. Shevtsiv’s supporters saw this as political persecution, while Truba denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, audio recordings that allegedly implicate Truba in wrongdoing were leaked by an unknown source on Nov. 19 through a Telegram channel, although Truba denies any wrongdoing. In the recordings, a person alleged to be Truba receives instructions from the Presidential Office and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Possible solution?
To resolve the situation with EuroMaidan cases, the families and lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters have proposed introducing legislative amendments allowing investigators who have worked on EuroMaidan cases at the Prosecutor General’s Office to be transferred to the State Investigation Bureau automatically.
However, on Nov. 16, the Verkhovna Rada failed to consider the amendments.
“(I’m on hunger strike) starting from today, when these investigations halted,” Zakrevska said on Nov. 21. “I will not eat until this amendment is passed and until a EuroMaidan cases unit is created at the State Investigation Bureau and these investigators are transferred.”
Initially the transfer of EuroMaidan investigations to the State Investigation Bureau in November was mandated by the law.
On Nov. 18, Gorbatuk said that the Verkhovna Rada had passed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code in October that effectively allow the Prosecutor General’s office to pursue EuroMaidan and other investigations until November 2020.
Nevertheless, the Prosecutor General’s office started to transfer the investigations, Gorbatuk added.
Dismissals and appointments
Many of the investigators and prosecutors working on EuroMaidan cases have been fired because they either refused to undergo vetting procedures introduced by Riaboshapka, claiming they are illegal, or did not pass the exams. The Prosecutor General’s Office denied accusations that the vetting format contradicts the law.
In October, Riaboshapka fired Gorbatuk, who had been consistently praised by the lawyers and families of EuroMaidan protesters. They argued that Gorbatuk’s firing would contribute to the collapse of the cases.
In the same month, the lawyers and families of EuroMaidan demonstrators lambasted the appointment of Viktor Mysyak as the main prosecutor overseeing State Investigation Bureau investigators in EuroMaidan cases.
Mysyak was previously accused of sabotaging EuroMaidan investigations, which he denies.
Vitaly Tytych, a lawyer for EuroMaidan protesters, told the Kyiv Post he believes the transfer of investigators who had previously worked on the cases to the State Investigation Bureau alone would not resolve the problem.
He argued that the firing of Gorbatuk and Mysyak’s appointment had effectively put an end to the EuroMaidan investigations, and Truba would be able to sabotage them regardless of such a transfer. He said Gorbatuk protected the EuroMaidan cases from political pressure, and now this protection is gone.
