Right-wing activist sentenced to 7Y in prison, protests began

A court in Odesa sentenced on Feb. 23 right-wing
activist Serhiy Sternenko to over seven years in prison for abducting a local
council member in 2015, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Sternenko was found guilty
of illegal long-time detention of a person with the use of weapons with the aim
of taking possession of other people’s property, the court ruled. The verdict
provoked mass protests in several Ukrainian cities, including clashes near the
presidential office in Kyiv, and a protest statement by the Lviv region council
which supported Sternenko.

If the verdict stays unchanged after appeal and enters
legal force, Sternenko will be imprisoned for seven years and seven months with
confiscation of half of his property. A group of people who came to the
courthouse in Odesa to support Sternenko stood near the courtroom and throw
smoke bombs to prevent his transportation from the court but failed.

An association named “Resistance to
Surrender” organized a protest rally with over 1,000 participants next to
the presidential 0ffice in Kyiv which eventually turned into clashes with
police. Criminal proceedings were launched afterwards and 17 protesters were
taken to police stations, as police officers sustained eye burns from tear gas.
“Demonstrators used aerosol cans and threw flares at officers in the course of
the clash,” the Kyiv police department’s press service told
Interfax-Ukraine. Similar but less violent protests were held in several major
cities of Ukraine. A new protest rally is scheduled for Saturday.

Former acting health minister Ulyana Suprun, who
travelled to Odesa to support Sternenko, and ex-president Petro Poroshenko
voiced their concerns over “prosecution of patriots.” Poroshenko accused
Zelensky of “leasing law enforcement bodies and courts” to pro-Russian forces.

Yuri Svirko: President
Volodymyr Zelensky faces a new challenge, experiencing the same trap as his
predecessors who had announced judicial reforms but did not change much in
Ukraine’s corrupt courts. While the sentence to Sternenko has not entered legal
force yet, his supporters are not waiting for the appeal but are blaming
Zelensky for the allegedly illegal verdict. While the Odesa region prosecutor
maintains that all charges against Sternenko have been fully proved, Ukrainian
right-wing forces believe that the case was orchestrated by pro-Russian circles
and accuse Zelensky of punishing their activist.

Had Ukraine and its president the real judicial
reform completed or at least started, such accusations would be groundless and
Ukrainians could have legal battles inside trustworthy courts instead of
clashes with police in the streets. Ironically, Poroshenko criticizes the
alleged lease of courts by Zelensky while this vividly contradicts Poroshenko’s
earlier statements about his own successful reforms of Ukraine’s judiciary.