Ukraine prosecutors fail to bring convictions in EuroMaidan murders

Serhiy Horbatiuk, the head of the special investigations unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, was unable to confirm at a Nov. 17 press conference any convictions in the persecution of the EuroMaidan protests that resulted in 104 civilian casualties. He said 270 criminal cases have been opened, none of which have resulted in a conviction. Prosecutors are investigating 2,000 crimes involving 2,200 victims while more than 5,000 witnesses and victims have been questioned, he said. They are also investigating illegal acts committed by more than 200 law enforcement officers, 80 prosecutors and more than 100 judges.

Horbatiuk denied accusations that prosecutors are intentionally dragging out the investigations. Instead, he cited various factors for the long timeframe, including a lack of qualified experts to gather and qualify evidence, improperly gathered evidence in the first stages, the large number of cases and resistance from the judiciary. “A large number of documents were destroyed,” Horbatiuk said. “The majority of arms involved were transported away, and we’re supposed to review thousands and thousands of samples in order to compare them with samples removed from the bodies of victims. Examinations are taking years. This is a complex issue and depends not only on investigators, but on the state apparatus.”

The violent dispersal of EuroMaidan activists on Nov. 30, 2013 was initiated by former President Viktor Yanukovych, former National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Kliuyev and former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Horbatiuk said. The dispersal was directly conducted by Kyiv Police Special Operations Commander Serhiy Kusiuk and Kyiv Police Public Safety Deputy Director Petro Fedchuk. “There was no legal basis for this dispersal,” Horbatiuk said. “There wasn’t a court ruling, which is the single basis for halting an act of protest.” More than 300 protesters were dispersed, of which 84 were beaten, including 17 students, he said.

Zenon Zawada: We have no doubt that it has been very difficult for law enforcement officials to investigate the crimes of the EuroMaidan, especially since many of them might hate been involved in the crimes, directly or indirectly. Yet even a handful of criminal convictions would have been helpful at this point. So it’s safe at this point to consider the EuroMaidan investigations a disastrous failure, owing partly to incompetence, and partly to sabotage. Through his actions, including the appointment of two corrupt prosecutor generals, President Petro Poroshenko has shown that he isn’t much interested in thorough investigations.

The political implications are already apparent in the plunge in the poll ratings of Poroshenko and his Solidarity party. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is a lame duck. Yet Poroshenko faces even more daunting challenges ahead that threaten his standing as president, including achieving the EU visa-free regime for citizens, meeting the conditions set by the Normandy format to hold elections in Donbas (unpopular among Ukrainians), as well as the meeting Minsk accords requirements of creating the Donbas special status (also unpopular). His failure to investigate the EuroMaidan crimes is merely one among many disappointments.