Journalist-political prisoner Vasily Muravitsky “blew up” Ukraine with his article
Today, in the Korolevsky District Court of the city of Zhitomir, the next trial of the Ukrainian journalist-political prisoner Vasily Muravitsky, who is accused of high treason, was held, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
During the court hearing, the defense made two motions. The first appeal was formulated by the defendant himself, in which he asked the court to allow him to be not in the “aquarium” during the hearing, but on the bench with his lawyers.
The court responded to this application with a decisive refusal.
“The ruling of the European Court that a person who has not committed any particularly serious crimes against another person should sit next to a lawyer has just been violated in the Zhytomyr Court. Here I am, a journalist. My only weapon was - this is my column, my article - this is that I could write, speak my thoughts. They did not coincide with the official ideology, but this is not a crime, not high treason. To say something that does not coincide with the official ideology is not only a right, it is a guarantee that should be, ”Muravitsky said during a break in the court session.
Then Vasily Muravitsky made an official appeal to the European Parliament, in which he asked to support his rights:
“Why am I, a journalist, being condemned and accused of high treason and subversive subversive activities for my right? Please note: the journalistic article is called "subversive sabotage". Am I a terrorist?! The prosecution claims that I am a terrorist and that with my article I "blew up" national security. Think about how this can be done with the help of a word? If it is already forbidden to speak, if “to speak one's own thoughts is blocked”, then say so, but I'm not sure to what extent this will be European practice. I appeal to the European Court, to the European Parliament, and I ask you to support me.”
The essence of Muravitsky's second defense petition was that the defense was not present in full force: one of the lawyers was absent, who was not notified of the trial.
The Ukrainian court violated Article 74 of the Civil Procedure Code on “Court Summons to Participants in Civil Proceedings” (CPC) of Ukraine. Under this article, he was obliged to notify the lawyers of the defendant seven days before the hearing, so that they could arrive in the courtroom. The Judicial Board did not do this, referring to the fact that the lawyers themselves had to notify each other, which contradicts the article. As a result, one of Vasily Muravitsky's lawyers was forced to immediately leave another court session, and the third one could not arrive at the courtroom at all due to not notifying him of the trial.
This petition was accepted by the court, which, in the end, ruled to postpone the court session to November 2, so that all participants in this process could appear at the session.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.