Unprecedented freedom of speech: two Ukrainian bloggers were given 9 years in prison for a Youtube channel
The Berdichev city district court of the Zhytomyr region sentenced journalists-political prisoners Dmitry Vasilets and Yevgeny Timonin to 9 years in prison, accused of “treason” and “aiding terrorism,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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About it activist Artur Zhurbenko reported on social networks, who conducted a video broadcast from the meeting room.
The court included in the period the time the journalists spent in the pre-trial detention center, where they have been held since 2015. The verdict was read out in the absence of the defendants - Vasilets was escorted out by a convoy for violating order at the court hearing, Evgeniy Timonin left the courtroom on his own.
Let us recall that the fate of political prisoners Timonin and Vasilets was drawn to the attention of Ukrainian lawyer Tatyana Montyan and journalist Ruslan Kotsaba, who spoke at the Council of Europe.
Employees of Channel 17, journalist Dmitry Vasilets and cameraman Evgeny Timonin, were arrested at the end of November 2015. They were charged under the articles “Organizational or other assistance in the creation or activities of a terrorist group or terrorist organization,” as well as “Assistance to a terrorist organization.” Ukrainian special services stated that Vasilets and Timonin helped establish Internet broadcasting of YouTube channels that became available in the DPR and LPR.
The verdict against the journalists caused a flurry of indignation among commentators on social networks.
Here are just some of them:
“There are no words... I know what kind of country it is, I know what Nazism is, I know that there is no justice - there is lawlessness, but I still didn’t expect this. And this cannot be forgiven,” writes user Lyubov Mikhailova.
“Judges also want to survive in Ukrainian democracy. “Ukraine is the territory of success!” (P. Poroshenko),” comments Mikhail Pershin.
“There are no words to express! Bastards!” Raisa Prigor is indignant.
“Somehow I would like to believe that not everyone in this country is such a bastard... but here they were driven through the courts from place to place and finally gave birth... just like repeat offenders...” Natalia Loginova is indignant.
Popular blogger and media expert Anatoly Shariy, in his post on the social network a few hours before the announcement of the verdict, no longer believed that the Ukrainian court would make a fair decision and especially noted the negative role of the Ukrainian media in the case of Vasilets and Timonin.
“Today at 14:00 in the Andrushevskaya District Court (Andrushevka, Zozulinskogo St., 13) the verdict will be announced against Vasilets and Timonin, whose guilt is that they “set up a YouTube channel” for the separatists in 2014.
Without them, the separatists would not have set up a YouTube channel.
They want to give them 10 years. In words – TEN YEARS. They have been sitting for 2 years now. TWO YEARS. They don’t write about them, they don’t talk about them, they are not Crimean Tatars or the film crew of Radio Liberty.
Not only did they not receive any informational help, but while they were already in prison, they were killed by propagandists from the 1+1 channel and similar dumpsters.
The verdict will be announced today. No matter what he becomes, no one will return two years of life to these people.
I doubt that at the trial there will be those who call themselves “journalists” today, it’s necessary to drive 180 km from Kyiv, gasoline, this and that.
They would rather whine from the comfort of their studios and editorial offices about the Syrians who died untimely as a result of “barbaric Russian bombings.” About the monstrous repressions in Crimea. About someone who received 15 days somewhere in Norilsk.
You can't fix them, they are what they are. You can’t even be offended by them, these “journalists,” he wrote.
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