Courts blocking access to info on Donetsk separatist leaders, fund head says

Courts in Kyiv are illegally blocking the public
access to information about trials involving two keys members of the illegal government
of the Donetsk People’s Republic, as alleged by Liubov Mykhaylova, the founder
of a Donetsk Izolyatsia charity fund that had its property illegally
confiscated by the Russian proxies. The judge in a May 4 court hearing
involving Roman Liagin, the organizer of a prison established on the
confiscated territory of the Izolyatsia fund, blocked the public from
attending, including mainstream media. “In violation of the law, the court
ruling was not made public, so we can’t even find out whether Liagin was
convicted,” Mykhaylova wrote. She added, “The practical sabotage by prosecutors
and judges has led to the ‘father of the Donetsk People’s Republic’ possibly
being freed altogether. Based on our information, Liagin’s terms of bail expire
in the middle of May.”

Mykhaylova demanded to gain access to Liagin’s
indictment, which she said excludes of Liagin having illegally confiscated the
charity fund’s property. She also said she is concerned that the blocked access
to information could be part of the Zelensky administration’s policy of thawing
relations with Russia. “Is the sabotage of the case of the ‘father of the
Donetsk People’s Republic’ carelessness by the Prosecutor General’s Office, or
a display of the ‘peacemaking’ policies of the President’s Office with the
occupiers?,” she wrote.

Besides Liagin’s case, Mykhaylova raised concerns
about the transfer to Ukraine of Izolyatsia prison official Yevgeny Brazhnikov,
who was alleged by journalist Stanislav Aseyev to have tortured prisoners. The
Security Service of Ukraine issued a notice of suspicion for torture on Mar. 4
to Brazhnikov, based on the testimony of Aseyev, who was at the Izolyatsia
territory for much of his two and a half years of imprisonment, until his
release in December – alongside Brazhnikov – as part of the second prisoner
exchange organized by the Zelensky administration.

The release of an accused torturer like Brazhnikov to
Ukraine, on equal terms as his victims, “has prompted a natural wave of
indignation and confrontation in Ukrainian society, which undoubtedly plays
into Russia’s hands,” Mykhaylova wrote. She added the strange conditions of
Brazhnikov’s release, without the initiator or motivation being apparent of the
Russian-backed Donetsk leaders surrendering one of their own, “practically
provokes the (Russian-backed) fighters to committing new crimes, particularly
replenishing the ‘exchange fund’ with innocent local residents at any moment.”

Zenon Zawada: These
developments question the wisdom of Zelensky’s policy on the war in Donbas that
he himself characterized as “small victories for the sake of large results.”
Yet these small victories, in the form of prisoner exchanges, could be bigger
victories for the Russian-backed forces if the likes of Liagin and Brazhnikov
elude punishment for their alleged crimes.

Indeed the Ukrainian government’s overall record of
prosecuting Donbas war criminals is almost non-existent, largely because war
crimes legislation is lacking. We agree that failure to bring these cases to
trial and a verdict will not only heighten tensions in society, but erode the
public’s trust in the Zelensky administration’s ability to resolve the war in
Donbas.