Verdict to the System (about project)

This blog is about criminal trial for the double murder commited in Kharkiv. The trial has lasted since 2010. The case is currently tried by the FIFTH board of judges. Two times the convictions with the penalty of life imprisonment have been overturned by the appeal court. After that the court order to refer the case back for additional investigation has been cancelled. Once the disqualification of the whole composition of court has been granted. The new Criminal Procedure Code has been already in force for four years, but every time the case is tried in accordance with the former (Soviet) CPC without any legal basis for this. After the judge resources in Ordzhonikidzevsky district court of Kharkiv were depleted, the case is tried by the third judicial panel of Frunze district court. When this case will come to the appeal court again, it is likely that it will be also impossible to form the board of judges, who haven’t participated in its hearing before. What for should one tell about this case? Cases - "marathons" are interesting because they allow us to see better how the System functions. The society lives now in a videoclip mode. This mode does not allow us to realize and react adequately to the underlying causes of what is happening. After sharp increase following the publicity the public interest in one or another judicial process wanes also sharply after receiving the fast and convenient answer to the resonance.

 In a lengthy repeated process one can clearly see the features of State machinery, which cannot be explained only by personal factors or loopholes in law. The mere existence of such and similar to it processes, when due to the partiality of court the person is tried on an unproven charge again and again, when regardless of the strength of evidences life sentences are passed so easily – is a verdict to the system itself. Such processes would have to cease already after the first quashing of conviction, if the state and society respected the rights of the ordinary citizen. Common person in our country should realize: if that is possible in murder trials, in less serious processes the System can definitely do whatever it wants.

The processes such as that described ruthlessly demonstrate how our society and the state actually “cherish” the human person, his life and his rights. Three cancelled judgements and the person whose fault has not been proved, and the case files are replete with the data on the barefaced evidence tampering, remains imprisoned for nearly SIX years. Nobody has answered for this, nobody is afraid of responsibility, since the System guarantees that the responsibility will not arise regardless of rewriting the law on the judiciary.

The blog will tell how the process "has reached" a today's stage, and will inform on how it will develop further in real time.

Using this case as an example we will try to highlight interesting legal conflicts, deficiencies in the legislation, “merits” of the law enforcement and judicial proceedings, conflicting jurisprudence as well as we will try to pay attention to the social background of what is happening. In our country both the court, and the law enforcement in general remain the integrated repressive machine serving authoritarian, if not totalitarian governance style. And these beautiful pictures with the reformed by the American (external) example and for their money patrol police do not change the fact mentioned at all. ‘Signboards ‘, ’ facades’, even the forms of government change in this part of Europe, but the essence remains unchanged for centuries. This management style is in complete harmony with the deeply rooted slave mentality of a significant part of the population. They continue to raise each other – the authoritarianism those in power (whatever they call themselves) and the slave illness of dependents.  

The plot of the case   

Two women were murdered in November 2010 at night from Saturday to Sunday, in one of the apartment buildings located in HTZ area (Ordzhonikidzevsky district in Kharkiv). The victims were an old retired woman and her 14-year-old granddaughter. Multiple stab wounds (dozens on each of the bodies) were inflicted on both victims. Around 8 a.m. on Sunday the adult son of the deceased pensioner and his friend who came in the apartment, where the murder had taken place, informed the police of the incident by phone. Both guys at once were detained by the arrived police officers, it wasn’t officially of course. At the same time the police conducted searches in the places of residence of each of them. Any incriminating traces or things were not found there. By examination of the crime scene any evidences incriminating someone in particular were not found as well. However later that night after long and "convincing" conversations with police officers at the local police department, the son of the deceased pensioner (Sergey) wrote a full confession. The time when this full confession was written is not specified in the documents. At about 6 p.m. Sergey was formally detained. As the grounds for detention it is specified in the investigator report literally: “When on the suspect or on his clothes, by him or at his dwelling place the traces of crime will be identified”. The identified traces and places where they were found are not specified in the report. After that Sergey was examined as a suspect. According to the voluntary confession the son killed his mother during a sudden quarrel, and the niece - as the witness of the first murder. Simultaneously with interrogation of the suspect the police officers got to the crime scene once again, and at the second attempt found “the murder weapon” there. It was a kitchen knife from a standard set with certain defects. All the time when the case was in the local police department the victim’s son confirmed his involvement in the murder, he confessed during the investigatory experiment. In interrogation as the accused he repeated his statements. After preventive measure had been imposed, the criminal case was referred to the regional investigation department for the further investigation. By the very first interview with investigator the accused retracted his confession and stated that the officers of the local police department obtained it by physical torture and mental violence. The allegation of physical and mental abuse has been severed and referred to the prosecutor’s office for verification, and the double murder case against the son of the deceased pensioner has been referred to the court.  

The background

For the full assessment of the circumstances connected with the proceeding it is necessary to learn about the sad fate of the family preceding the murder.

Five years before the murder the girl’s parents were killed in traffic accident. The girl’s parents were the sister of accused of the murder Sergey (the deceased pensioner’s daughter) and a man who forsook another family and left two children (girls) with his former wife. The dead girl and her father’s children from his first marriage were the half-sisters. Shortly before his death in traffic accident this man inherited his parents’ apartment. Having considerable debts and pressing business creditors he decided not to risk the inherited property and reregistered the apartment in his mother’s-in-law name. Two months after the reregistration of the apartment the fatal road accident occurred … After death of the girl’s parents the grandmother assumed custody of the girl. Together they moved to this apartment inherited by the son-in-law where subsequently both of them were killed. Close relatives of the son-in-law resented the fact that the grandmother had “appropriated” his apartment. This resulted in a deep long-running conflict… A driver of one of the Kharkiv bread-baking plants that was owned by a city council deputy was found guilty of the traffic accident. The driver has gone into hiding where he resides to the present. The grandmother applied to court with the claim for damages against the vehicle’s owner – the bread-baking plant. In accordance with the court’s decision the bread-baking plant was obliged to pay one-time compensation to the grandmother and her granddaughter, and to make monthly payments to them up to the age of majority of the girl. The bread-baking plant didn’t execute the decision of the court but every month it transferred charitable assistance to the grandmother’s bank account (maybe for tax saving or for another reason - figures on charity volume were actively used by the deputy owner in his political activities). The total amount of payments made for three years was equivalent to more than 60,000 US dollars. Besides cashless transfer the assistance was provided by cash and tangible gifts. As a result, at the time of the grandmother’s death there were funds in the total amount of about 40, 000 US dollars on her deposit accounts. Furthermore, within 1-1,5 months before the crime the grandmother withdrew a total of about 4, 000 US dollars from her accounts. No expensive purchases were made during this time. For an ordinary pensioner, who received (at that time) less than 200 dollars per month, it was far from ordinary money. However, by the crime scene investigation neither money nor deposit books/agreements were found. The only exception is that 2, 000 hryvnas (at that time it was about 250 US dollars) were found hidden in a cuff of the girl’s breeches. The odd thing is that at the crime scene the girl’s body was dressed only in underwear. And the body was taken to a morgue like that. But somehow, the breeches were found in the morgue together with the body. And that is where, in the morgue, this money was found. 

A brief chronology of the proceeding

The event of crime – November 14, 2010. This is also the date of detention of the suspect.

Completion of the preliminary (pretrial) investigation – February 2011.

The first trial (the presiding judge is Zyabrova): March 2011 – April 2012. The sentence was imposed on April 10, 2012.

The second trial (the presiding judge is Babenko, the vice-president of the court): April 2013 – September 2013. The sentence was imposed on September 16, 2013.

Resolving the question of change of venue: April – May 2014. The new venue is Frunze district court of Kharkiv.

The third trial (the presiding judge is Gorpinich): May 2014. The disqualification of the whole composition of court was granted. The case was referred to the appeal court for duplicative laying of the venue.

The fourth trial (the presiding judge is Bondareva, the vice-president of the court): June – December 2014. The order to refer the case back for additional investigation, December 24, 2014.

The fifth trial (the presiding judge is Gorpinich again, now as the vice-president of the court ): May 2015 – to the present day.

The proceedings that have taken place simultaneously with the main process:

- The initiation of criminal proceedings for home invasion carried out by internal affairs officials;

- The initiation of criminal proceedings against the use of unlawful investigative methods;

- The initiation of criminal proceedings for drawing up the knowingly false expert opinion;

- Four proceedings on access to banking secrecy, the subject is: the existence of bank accounts of the deceased pensioner, information on the movement of funds on the accounts and their balances.