Court closes EuroMaidan-related criminal case against Kharkiv mayor

A local Poltava court ruled on Aug. 10 to close a
criminal case against Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, who was accused in
organizing abductions and assaults in January 2014 during the EuroMaidan protests
in his city. The judge ruled to close the case against Kernes and his two
guards due to prosecutors recalling their indictment, the liga.net news site
reported, citing the prosecutors’ failure to support prosecution and attend the
hearings. It was the second time in two months that none of the 19 prosecutors
assigned to the case appeared in court, prompting the Anti-Corruption Action
Center led by Vitaliy Shabunin to speculate on Facebook that their absence was
deliberate.

Zenon Zawada: Many of the
Poroshenko administration’s most trusted allies were on the wrong side of the
EuroMaidan, including Kernes, who undeniably had some role in the persecution
of activists. Yet since then, these officials have redeemed themselves in the
eyes of the presidential administration, which has dragged out their criminal
cases to the election campaign, which we view as deliberate. Kernes in
particular played a critical role in suppressing pro-Russian revolts in Kharkiv
in the spring of 2014, thereby preventing Ukraine’s second-largest city from
plunging into civil unrest warfare, as the Donbas region did. For his actions,
Kernes earned “political immunity” from the Poroshenko administration, which
has offered further backing for Kernes after his recent statements in support
of Poroshenko with the election campaign underway.

From the way the Poroshenko administration is
handling all most EuroMaidan-related criminal cases, it’s apparent that it
wants to bury these crimes without prosecuting them, even when it comes to
members of the Yanukovych administration. This has served to demoralize the
public and has undermined the public trust in the president, who is unlikely to
be re-elected according to recent polls. The failure to prosecute these crimes
will also lead to certain members of the Yanukovych administration regaining
their power and influence following the 2019 parliamentary elections.