Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
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Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
believed to be that of Georgiy Gongadze, which was
found in a shallow grave in woodland in the Tarashcha
region, near Kyiv on 3 November 2000. According to
the non-governmental organization Reporters without
Borders, the results of a medical inquiry published on
11 January, during which 16 different DNA tests were
supposedly carried out in Ukraine and Russia,
revealed that there was a 99.64 per cent chance that
the body belonged to the missing journalist.
29
However, a DNA test conducted in Munich, Germany,
in March contradicted these original findings, finding
that muscle tissue supposedly taken from the body
was not compatible with a blood sample taken from
the mother of Georgiy Gongadze. In contrast, the
results of a joint US-Ukrainian DNA test published in
May re-confirmed the identity of the body as Georgiy
Gongadze. Georgiy Gongadze’s 31-year-old wife,
Miroslava Gongadze, and mother have refused
permission to bury the body, fearing that its identity
has not been correctly established. At the end of May
Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office reportedly ordered that,
against the wishes of Georgiy Gongadze’s family, the
body be buried. However, at the end of the period
under review the body had not been buried.
The newly appointed Minister of the Interior,
Yury Smirnov, created further controversy on 15 May
when he stated that the criminal investigation into the
"disappearance" of Georgiy Gongadze had been
solved and the case was to be closed. According to the
Minister of the Interior, the murder of Georgiy
Gongadze had been non-politically motivated and had
been committed by two criminals who themselves had
been murdered by other criminals at a later date. The
men accused of killing Georgiy Gongadze’s killers
were reportedly being held in police custody. Few
people attached much credibility to the statement and
the Minister of the Interior himself refuted his earlier
statement as “premature” 10 days later on 25 May.
Freedom of expression
AI expressed concern about the conviction of the
journalist, Oleg Lyashko, of criminal libel on 7 June
and the imposition of a two-year ban preventing him
from practising as a journalist. The organization
considered that the conviction of criminal libel under
Article 125 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code and the
professional ban were in violation of his right to
freedom of expression and of Ukraine’s international
treaty obligations. Journalists convicted of libel under
Articles 125 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code face
possible imprisonment of up to three years.
Alternatively, newspaper editors may face fines, to
which there is reportedly no limit, which have resulted
in the closure of a number of newspapers.
Minsk District Court in Kyiv convicted 28-year-
old Oleg Lyashko, the former editor of the now
defunct newspaper, Polityka, on 7 June after a
protracted trial. Although the criminal case against
Oleg Lyashko was originally filed in July 1997, he
was reportedly not formally charged until June 1998,
almost a year later. He was accused of libelling two
prominent government officials: the then acting Prime
Minister, Vasyl Durdynets, and the head of the
Ministry of the Interior of Odessa Oblast, Ivan
Hryhorenko. Oleg Lyashko was reportedly accused of
having libelled the officials in the course of three
newspaper articles which appeared in Polityka in June
1997, alleging that Vasyl Durdynets and Ivan
Hryhorenko were involved in corrupt business
practices.
The criminal libel case was instituted against Oleg
Lyashko under Article 125 (2) of the Criminal Code
of Ukraine, of which he was acquitted by Judge
Mykola Zamkovenko at Pechersk District Court in
Kyiv on 23 December 1999. The court reportedly
ruled that there was no evidence that a crime had been
committed and the preliminary investigation had been
biassed. However, in November 2000 Kyiv City Court
overruled Oleg Lyashko’s acquittal, sending the case
to Minsk District Court for retrial. On retrial, he was
convicted of libel, resulting in a two-year suspended
prison sentence. Minsk District Court additionally
banned Oleg Lyashko, who now is the editor of the
newspaper, Svoboda, from working as a journalist for
a period of two years. AI is informed that Oleg
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Reporters sans frontières - Ukraine: Mutilation of the
truth, Inquiry into the murder of journalist Géorgiy Gongadze, 22
Lyashko intends to appeal the conviction and the two-
year professional prohibition.
Freedom of assembly
AI learned about two incidents in Kyiv on 1 and 9
March during which police officers used force to
break up demonstrations against President Kuchma.
The organization urged the authorities to ensure that
in future the principle of proportionality of force is
respected by police officers at all times, and that
demonstrators are not ill-treated or arrested for
exercising their right of peaceful assembly.
At around 9am on 1 March around 400 police
officers surrounded a protest camp on Khreshchatyk
Street in the centre of Kyiv and began dismantling
approximately 50 make-shift tents located on the
street. The encampment had reportedly been in place
since the end of January. Although a number of the
protestors left the protest camp after being ordered to
do so by police officers, other protestors were
reportedly threatened with up to 15 days’
imprisonment if they refused to comply with the
demands of the police. Approximately 40 protestors
were reportedly arrested after refusing to leave. It has
been reported that police officers may have used
excessive degrees of force to dismantle the
encampment and disperse protestors. Some protestors
have reportedly complained that police officers kicked
them for refusing to leave their tents. AI expressed
concerned that the police officers who allegedly
January 2001 - page 11