The trial of the Zaporozhye journalist ended in an acquittal
On March 27, 2019, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Zaporozhye rendered a verdict in the case of Zaporozhye journalist, prisoner of conscience Pavel Volkov, whose political persecution for his professional activities lasted 1,5 years.
The charge was changed several times - from an article implying life imprisonment to an article under which the sentence is up to 15 years.
On November 25, 2018, after 13 months in a pre-trial detention center, Volkov was released from the courtroom without a preventive measure. The consideration of the case ended only at the beginning of March 2019, and the panel of judges spent 20 days in the deliberation room, passing a verdict.
The prosecution qualified Volkov's actions under Part 2 of Art. 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (calls to change the borders of Ukraine in violation of the order established by the Constitution of Ukraine by prior conspiracy of a group of persons) and Part 1 of Art. 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (other assistance to terrorist organizations). The indictment included blog articles by the journalist, as well as video recordings of the destroyed Donetsk with comments from local residents, made by Volkov in 2015-2016.
Linguistic examination of the data showed the absence of calls for violating the territorial integrity of the country. Part of the so-called evidence in the case was, at the request of lawyer Svetlana Novitskaya, declared inadmissible, since it was obtained with significant violations of the criminal procedure code and human rights. The most important thing is that the court did not see the elements of a crime in the actions of Pavel Volkov and pointed out the inadmissibility of persecution of journalists in Ukraine for their professional activities.
The verdict with numerous references to the Constitution of Ukraine, Conventions, Covenants, decisions of the European Court of Human Rights related to violations of freedom of speech, fairness of the court decision, etc. was read out for more than 2,5 hours. An acquittal was rendered on all charges.
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