15.07.2011

Tymoshenko once again removed from her own trial

As with Yury Lutsenko, Minister of Internal Affairs in Tymoshenko’s government, although on entirely different charges, the indictment against Yulia Tymoshenko is being read out in the defendant’s absence. Judge Kiryeev had Ms Tymoshenko removed from the courtroom for what he called content for the court proceedings and numerous infringements of the law.

15.07.2011

Penal Head apparently dismissed over events at Colony No. 89

According to a local journalist, D. Reznichenko, the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Division of the Department for the Execution of Sentences, Anatoly Babets has been dismissed.

08.07.2011

Police: search of Glavnoye offices linked to land law offences investigation

According to the Head of the Kharkiv Regional CID, the searches carried out on Thursday into officers of the Kharkiv regional branch of the Batkivshchyna Party (led by Yulia Tymoshenko) and the former Governor of the region, Arseny Avakov, were part of an investigation “over violations of land legislation by officials of several commercial structures in Kharkiv”.

07.07.2011

Commission in Venice will discuss the drafts law on election, assembly and judiciary

07.07.2011

Initial support in Verkhovna Rada for biometric passports

The Verkhovna Rada plans to introduce biometric information in passports in accordance with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

06.07.2011

New criminal investigation against Tymoshenko

The SBU [Security Service] has launched a new criminal investigation. The case is over an alleged “attempt by former officials of the Cabinet of Ministers, the corporation “United Energy Systems of Ukraine” and the company United Energy International Limited by the prior conspiracy of a group of people through abuse of their official position to embezzle public funding on a particularly large scale to a general figure of 405 million US dollars”.

05.07.2011

The Cabinet of Ministers’ specific notion of public broadcasting

On 9 June the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft law “On a system of public television and radio broadcasting”. This entails the creation of public broadcasting on the basis of the National Television Company of Ukraine [NTCU]. The move was announced by the President’s Adviser on humanitarian, and socio-political issues, Anna Herman. She claimed that leading media experts had been drawn into the work on the draft law.

22.06.2011

Prosecutor General not forthcoming over Lutsenko Judge criminal investigation

According to National Deputy, Hennady Moskal the Prosecutor General’s Office has not responded to a number of letters asking from information about the alleged criminal investigation initiated against the judge of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv who is presently examining the case against Yury Lutsenko.

09.06.2011

Almost half the population perceive political repression by the regime

The authoritiative Razumkov Centre has published the results of a new public survey for May 2011. The fact that the level of optimism with the development of events in Ukraine has not changed if compared with the results for April is not especially cheering. Only 15.2% believe that events are going in the right direction, while 63.4% consider them to be going the wrong way.

06.06.2011

Stop Censorship calls on journalists to gather at Mezhyhirya

On Sunday 5 June, the civic movement Stop Censorship issued a call to journalists to gather at Mezhyhirya to monitor how the court ruling banning their planned peaceful protest action will be implemented.

03.06.2011

Parliamentary Freedom of Speech Committee takes up the Antenna-Plus case

Members of the Committee on Freedom of Speech are to send an appeal to the Prosecutor General regarding the situation with the Cherkasy TV and Radio Company [TRC) Antenna Plus.

31.05.2011

UN human rights body presents confidential preliminary findings to the Government of Ukraine

The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) presented today its confidential preliminary observations to the Government of Ukraine, in conclusion of its first visit to Ukraine, which took place from 16 to 25 May 2011. During the visit, the SPT met with the relevant national authorities and representatives of civil society, and conducted visits to a number of places of deprivation of liberty (see attached list), including police stations, ITTs, SIZOs, and prison colonies, in the regions of Kyiv, Lviv, Zakarpatie, and Donetsk.

30.05.2011

90 civic organizations call on President not to sell out for a jar of black caviar

On 27 May a public protest action was held in Kyiv under the banner “President, don’t’ sell out!” It was run by the civic organizations who have joined together in an independent Partnership “For Honest Public Procurement in Ukraine” and marked the ceremonial sending off of an open appeal signed by 90 NGOs calling on the President to veto draft Law No. 7532.

24.05.2011

Yulia Tymoshenko detained

The Leader of the opposition BYuT Party, former Presidential candidate and Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko has been detained in Kyiv. This was on the basis of a court order from the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv “in order to carry out investigation activities”.

23.05.2011

Court extends Yury Lutsenko’s imprisonment

The court has kept unchanged the preventive measure applied against former Minister of Internal Affairs and leader of the People’s Self-Defence Party, Yury Lutsenko, i.e. remand in custody. Its grounds for this are not revealed.

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