The leader of the Kharkov anti-Maidan is being “pressured” in a cell with a criminal, without waiting for a court decision (PHOTO)
Kharkov - Kyiv, July 29 (Navigator, Dmitry Gubin) - Sergei Yudaev, one of the leaders of the anti-Maidan in Kharkov, arrested in the spring after clearing the regional state administration building of Russian activists, published an open appeal to Vladimir Putin from his prison. The prisoner behind bars is threatened with physical elimination. The political prisoner was denied the right to bail. Today a regular court hearing took place in Kharkov. The fate of Yudaev and other prisoners in the “April 8 case” is an example of repression – another episode for the “White Book” of crimes of the new Ukrainian government.
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Yudaev made his appeal to Putin, and at the same time to Petro Poroshenko, in the hall of the Kyiv District Court.
“Consider that there’s already a gun pointed at your child’s head,” “we’ll fill your lawyers with pockets full of heroin,” “our hands won’t tire of writing reports that he fell down the stairs,” “the courts are all below us”—such are the threats, according to Yudaev , were addressed to him during interrogations, when they tried to force him to make a number of political statements, change his civil position and plead guilty under Part 1 of Art. 294 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “Organization of mass riots”.
Let us recall that the resonant “April 8 case” in Kharkov began with the fact that a group of Kharkov residents, called “Defenders of Kharkov” - representatives of various public organizations - demanded the immediate convening of an extraordinary session of the regional council in order to resolve a number of urgent issues, primarily the holding consultative survey on the status of the Russian language and the powers of regional authorities.
However, early in the morning of April 8, with the help of special forces, Russian activists were captured in the building of the Kharkov Regional State Administration. They were charged with organizing mass riots. More than thirty people have now been released on bail with the use of another measure of restriction of freedom, the rest remain in custody, two - Serey Yudaev and Egor Logvinov - have been given a preventive measure of “detention” without the possibility of posting bail. The appeal to change the preventive measure was rejected by the court. On August 4, the deadline expires during which the prosecutor's office had to collect all the evidence and present it to the court.
On the eve of July 29, Sergei Yudaev’s lawyers invite journalists and the public to a court hearing, where Yudaev is going to make an important statement. Yudaev's defense stated that it was seriously concerned about the threat to his life and health. On June 26, in violation of detention standards, suspect Sergei Yudaev was transferred from the pre-trial detention center to a correctional colony, where persons already found guilty of criminal offenses are serving their sentences. As a sign of protest, Yudaev opened his veins and demanded to call a lawyer. However, lawyer Dmitry Tikhonenkov, according to him, was not allowed to see his client for 5 hours, who was sent to a punishment cell instead of providing medical assistance. All defense complaints about violations and illegal detention of the suspect along with the convicted have remained unanswered for almost a month.
“He has been in a cell with a criminal for almost a month, they put pressure on him, they threaten him, me, and the children,” says Elena Yudaeva, Sergei’s wife. “It already seems to me that the days are counting…”
The lawyers asked the judge of the Kyiv District Court of Kharkov, Svetlana Shvadchenko, who heard the case, to allow the accused to speak from the very beginning, because the defense included his statement in its petition.
Sergei Yudaev addressed his family and friends, journalists and public figures who had gathered in the hall: “I express my consent to undergo a lie detector examination to confirm what I claim in this statement...” In his statement, he claimed that at any moment he could have an “accident” or stage a suicide, and he listed threats against his family and legal team. On his own behalf, Yudaev petitioned the court to change the preventive measure so that he could be released and cooperate with the investigation to fully and objectively clarify the circumstances of the case. However, if the court does not satisfy his request and the defense, Sergei said that he would then make a special statement - through his lawyers and his relatives.
Sergei Yudaev was an extremely “inconvenient” suspect from the very beginning.
At the very first court hearing, where he was given a preventive measure of “detention without the right to post bail,” he stated that he was turning to the Consul General of the Russian Federation in Ukraine with a request to grant him Russian citizenship on the basis that he has a residence permit in Crimea, was born in Leningrad and by nationality - Russian. According to him, this was the first attempt to defend against a “falsified criminal case.” He openly named “Minister Avakov and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kharkiv region Dmitriev” as the leaders of the “act of repression”; he told reporters in court that he considered the “new government of Ukraine” to be guilty.
During the investigation, Yudaev, together with lawyer Dmitry Tikhonenkov, tried to prove that his case was simply “sewn with white thread.” On April 8, the suspect could not have organized “riots” in the regional state administration building for the simple reason that he was in a different place. In particular, the editors of the News Television Agency (ATN) charged Yudaev with hooligan acts allegedly committed by him precisely at the moment of the “storming of the KhORGA.” Both charges - both for the seizure of the regional administration and for the action against the news service - were signed by the same prosecutor Shevtsov. Today they are combined into one production. “In fact, the prosecutor’s office itself confirmed Sergei Yudaev’s alibi, indicating in two procedural documents that he was in different places at the same time, but my client is not Count Cagliostro,” lawyer Tikhonenkov said in court when filing a petition to change the preventive measure.
In addition, according to the defenders, no calls or actions aimed at violating the integrity of Ukraine (“separatism”) came from Yudaev. All his activities, both on the night of April 8 and before that, were in the nature of political statements within the framework of the law. However, neither the obvious inconsistency in the two mutually exclusive charges, nor a number of other evidence of the suspect’s lack of guilt made any impression on the court. “Twice accused” in one night, Sergei Yudaev remains in pre-trial detention.
Nevertheless, the “inconvenient” Yudaev continues his struggle. He demands to invite as witnesses for the defense: Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, head of the regional police department Anatoly Dmitriev, mayor of Kharkov Gennady Kernes, first vice-governor Vasily Khoma, general director of the ATN television company Oleg Yukht and journalists of this news service. After such statements, on June 26, Yudaev, by order of the Department of Execution of Punishments, was transferred from the pre-trial detention center to essentially “places of detention”, sent to a punishment cell, temporarily deprived of meetings with a lawyer, and transfers from family were limited. The lawyers' complaints remain unheeded, despite the fact that Yudaev's case has already been included in the White Book as a case of gross violation of human rights.
On July 29, after Sergei Yudaev read out a statement “about the threat to my life”, reports letters to the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, the head of the SBU, the Prosecutor General, the Consul General of the Russian Federation, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and a number of other authorities, the court retired for a two-hour meeting. Despite the requests of lawyers and the statement, Yudaev’s preventive measure “detention without the possibility of bail” is extended until October 2. The prosecutor tells the lawyers that they can continue to complain about the conditions of detention of the suspect to the relevant authorities. Sergei Yudaev asks the lawyer to take another of his statements, multiply and distribute them. Sergei Yudaev is led away in handcuffs.
Dmitry Tikhonenkov, his defender, gives me the opportunity to read everything: “As soon as they beat me up on their command, put me down, cause an accident, commit suicide - set off fireworks from their apartments, houses, cars! And with them - do as Honor, Justice and Heart tell you!
Tikhonenkov told those present in the courtroom that his client is fully aware of what he wrote and he himself wants to disseminate this statement in the press and social networks. As soon as all the authorities have been passed and all the necessary materials have been collected, the legal team will be able to transfer the case of Sergei Yudaev to the European Court of Human Rights, in addition, the materials of Yudaev’s case have already been transferred to the White Book.
On the same day, Sergei Yudaev again voiced his civic position, which he defended at rallies and in his journalistic materials. Yudaev repeatedly outlined the main theses - the right of Kharkov residents to use the Russian language and the expansion of the powers of the Kharkov region - in his well-known blog, reinforced by regular stream broadcasts from different points of Kharkov. The number of blog viewers exceeded 2 million people. The resource was destroyed by unknown persons in June, when Sergei Yudaev was already in custody.
The “April 8 Case” in Kharkov will continue at least until October. Such well-known people in Kharkov and Ukraine as Sergei Yudaev, Egor Logvinov (both representing the “Ukrainian Eastern Bloc”), and Spartak Golovachev are in custody. The maximum penalty for their charges is up to 8 years in prison.
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