By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe  

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal acquitted the former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, of one charge of genocide.  The charge covered the mass killings, expulsions and persecution by Serb forces of Muslims and Croats from Bosnian towns early in the country’s 1992-95 war, which left 100,000 dead.

Karadzic was arrested in 2008, 13 years after he was first indicted on charges of masterminding Serb atrocities during the war.  His trial started in 2009, and prosecutors finished presenting their evidence in May.  Earlier this month, Karadzic had asked judges to dismiss all 11 counts against him, claiming that the prosecutors had failed to prove their case.

The judges found that while there was enough evidence to uphold murder and persecution charges in the early stages of the war, the killings did not rise to the level of genocide.

Presiding judge Oh-Gon Kwon said prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to “be capable of supporting a conviction of genocide in the [Bosnian] municipalities.”  A conviction of genocide requires a showing of intent to wipe out a specific group in whole or part.

Karadzic’s lawyer, Peter Robinson, welcomed the latest decision.

“Dr. Karadzic and myself both thought it was a courageous decision of the trial chamber to say at this stage of the case that there was no genocide in the municipalities in Bosnia in 1992.  But I do expect that the prosecution will want to appeal [against] this decision.”

Prosecutors had no immediate reaction, but the acquittal sparked outcry from survivors of the Bosnian war.

“We are shocked and disappointed,” said Edin Ramulic, who heads an association of victims in Bosnia’s Prijedor region.  “We have no reason to hope now that the Serbs will go through catharsis and acknowledge that the non-Serbs in Prijedor had been killed, tortured, exterminated, raped.”

Karadzic still faces one genocide charge regarding his alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.  Additionally, Karadzic also faces 9 other counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in running a violent campaign to eliminate non-Serbs from parts of Bosnia.

Karadzic is expected to start arguing his case on October 16.  Karadzic’s former military chief, General Ratko Mladic, is also on trial on almost identical charges.  The first witness in that trial is scheduled to begin testifying in early July.

 

For further information, please see:

The Guardian — Radovan Karadzic cleared of one genocide charge in The Hague — 28 June 2012

The New York Times — Ex-Leader of Bosnian Serbs Fails to Get War Crimes Trial Halted — 28 June 2012

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty — ICTY Drops Genocide Charge Against Karadzic — 28 June 2012

 

By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Alexander Bastrykin, Russia’s chief of the Investigative Committee, issued a public apology to Sergei Sokolov after making death threats to the Novaya Gazeta journalist.  In an off-the-record meeting with several editors from the Moscow media, Bastrykin apologized for being overly emotional during his confrontation with Sokolov.

Sokolov, the deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta first received fire from Bastrykin after writing an article accusing the Investigative Committee and its chief for aiding crime bosses.  The article was written in response to the light sentences served against members of the Kushchyovskaya gang, which murdered 12 people, including small children, in 2011.  Amongst those sentences that Sokolov heavily criticized was the one imposed on local legislator Sergei Tsepovyaz.  Tsepovyaz, a brother of a gang member, was only ordered to pay a fine of 150,000 rubles ($4,570) after the court found him guilty of destroying evidence of a gasoline purchase.  The gasoline had been used by gang members to burn down the victims’ home.

Bastrykin was infuriated after reading the article, and quickly acted to invite Sokolov to a conference in Nalchik.  Sokolov received the death threat on the return trip to Moscow.  According to Muratov’s open letter to Bastrykin, Sokolov was taken to a forest near Moscow in a car.  There, Bastrykin ordered his bodyguards to leave before “rudely” threatening Sokolov’s life, adding jokingly that he would personally investigate Sokolov’s murder.  Sokolov fled the country shortly after telling a colleague that Bastrykin threatened to cut his head and legs off.

Bastrykin’s apology comes after the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)’s criticism.  Both groups supported Muratov and his demand for a public explanation, and urged Russian authorities to investigate the threats.

Sokolov and Muratov had both accepted Bastrykin’s apology.  While some have applauded the Investigator Committee chief, others have expressed disappointment in Novaya Gazeta’s response.

“It is now forbidden to take Sergei Sokolov out in the woods and threaten to do away with him, but it’s OK to do that to other journalists.  Because as of today it’s not even a crime, just a bit of rudeness.  That is Dmitry Muratov’s gift to the journalistic community that only yesterday took to the streets for him,” wrote Masha Gessen, editor of the travel magazine Vokrug Sveta.

While Bastrykin’s apology did not change the dangerous conditions of Russian journalists, it most certainly answered Novaya Gazeta’s demands for Sokolov’s safety.  Sokolov returned to Moscow on June 19 after Bastrykin apologized to him personally.

 

For further information, please see:

The Economist — Publish and be Threatened: A Revealing Tale of a Journalist and a Top Policeman — 23 June 2012

Bloomberg — What to Do When Russia’s Top Cop Threatens to Behead You — 20 June 2012

The Moscow Times — Bastrykin Ate His Words — 19 June 2012

International Federation of Journalists — IFJ and EFJ Slam Head of Russian Investigative Committee over Threats to Senior Journalist — 14 June 2012

By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England – The British government is being pressured by the Labour party to continue its current boycott of the Eurocup 2012 tournament. The soccer tournament is being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Due to deteriorating human rights violations and the actions of Ukranian President Yanukoyvch in the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival, several European governments have announced their boycott of the tournament. All of the participants in Group D of the tournament, England, France and Sweden boycotted the group stage.

The Labour party wants Prime Minister David Cameron’s office to completely boycott the entire tournament, as opposed to their current decision of only boycotting the early stages.

Emma Reynolds, shadow Foreign Office minister said, “Why does the Government still take the position that human rights don’t seem to matter in the knockout stages of the European Championships? Is it that they don’t have confidence in their own policy or they don’t have confidence in our team?”

The British Europe minister David Lidington has commented that the government will review the attendance by ministers at later stages of the tournament under review.  “We have made it clear in every conversation at official and ministerial level with our Ukrainian counterparts that if they want to have the democratic future, the closer links with Europe that the Ukrainian government says it wishes to see and we believe needs to happen, then they have to show that they are serious about democratic as well as about economic reform.”, Lidington has said.

David Cameron’s office also faces pressure from Eugenia Tymoshenko, Yulia Tymoshenko’s daughter who is calling for the Prime Minister to rescind President Yanukoych’s invitation to the opening ceremonies for the   2012 Olympics this summer. She also calls for visa bans on high ranking Ukrainian officials and for their assets to be frozen.

President Yanukoyvch’s handling of the Tymoshenko case has caused concern for the country’s human rights record. Tymoshenko was convicted for abuse of power charges and is currently undergoing investigation after Yanukoyvch linked her to a 16 year old murder case.

For further information, please see:

ITV News — Labour Urge Government to Boycott Euro 2012 – 20 June 2012

United Kingdom Press Association — Government Under Euro 2012 Pressure – 20 June 2012

The Guardian — Yulia Tymoshenko’s Daughter: Bar Ukraine President from Olympics – 18 June 2012

By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

MOSCOW, Russia — On June 13, 2012, Natella Boltyanskaya, Olga Bychkova, Alina Grebneva, Vladimir Varfolomeev, and Alexander Podrabinek were detained by Russian police after engaging in peaceful, individual pickets.  The five journalists were trying to hold up posters to support their colleague, Sergei Sokolov, who had received threats from the head of the Investigation Committee, Alexander Bastrykin.  One of the detained journalists said that the police moved so rapidly to arrest them that only two of the journalists had time to unravel and display their posters.  Sergei Sokolov, the deputy chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, began receiving threats from Bastrykin after accusing Bastrykin and the rest of the Investigation Committee of aiding crime bosses in a recent article.

The journalists were protesting separately in front of Russia’s Investigation Committee, the state agency in charge of criminal investigations, when police officers forced them into a van.  Despite the fact that each of the journalists were careful to stand some distance away from the others, they were all taken to the Basmanny precinct in central Moscow.  There, they were questioned and forced to provide written statements explaining their actions before they were released without charge.

Bychkova told Human Rights Watch that demonstrating individually does not, by law, require authorization in advance.  The recent legislation on public rallies however, defined individual pickets as organized public events if they appear to “have attributes of planned collective action,” and therefore require prior authorization.  It is under the new regulations that the police found a basis for detaining the journalists.  Bychkova said that the police had warned them at the precinct “not to attempt any such thing in the future,” and continually referred to the new law.

The detention of the five journalists sparked media outcry and inspired other journalists to show up at the Investigation Committee building.  A policeman told one of the journalists that taking over someone else’s poster qualifies as collective action, and would give him the right to arrest her.  When asked if she could draw her own poster, the policeman replied: “If your new poster revolves around the same idea as the other poster, it will mean that this is an organized public action, not an individual picket.”

Noting their repressive and abusive nature, Humans Rights Watch has sharply criticized Russia’s new regulations on peaceful assembly.  It urged the Kremlin to revise the new law since it so starkly conflicts with Russia’s duty to respect and uphold freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration.  According to Tanya Lokshina, a senior researcher for Russia at Human Rights Watch, “Even if a law gives police powers of detention, to use them to suppress the legitimate exercise of fundamental rights makes that use arbitrary and abusive.”

 

For further information, please see:

Human Rights Watch — Russia: Five Journalists Detained — 14 June 2012

Gulf Times — Top Russian journalist flees ‘investigator’s death threat’— 13 June 2012

The Republic — Russian top investigator threatens reporter, paper says — 13 June 2012

Human Rights Watch — Russia: Reject Restrictions on Peaceful Assembly — 8 June 2012

 

By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine — Viktor Yanukovich, the President of Ukraine has linked political rival Yulia Tymoshenko to a 16 year old murder. Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister, has been imprisoned since October for alleged abuse of office charges.

Tymoshenko was convicted on charges alleging that she abused her authority  in 2009 in a natural gas deal with Gazprom, a Russian energy company.  Her appeal for this conviction is scheduled for June 26. She also faces a separate charge for tax evasion and embezzlement for June 25.

Yanukovich’s latest accusations add on to the current scrutiny he is under by other European officials. Western European governments have chosen to boycott the 2012 Eurocup soccer matches, which are being jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine.  Tymoshenko’s conviction is claimed to be politically motivated by other European officials, which is why they have boycotted the matches.

Stefan Fule, European commissioner for enlargement believes that the charges and conviction are due to acts of selective justice, “They were not conducted according to international standards.  There was no impartiality of judges and there was no equality of arms between prosecution and defense.”

The latest accusation against Tymoshenko by Yanukovich links her to the 16 year old contract killing case of Yevhen Shcherban. Shcherban was attacked in a hail of bullets as he left a plane in Donetsk, Ukraine. The attack also took the lives of his and several bystanders.

Current Prime Minister Mykola Azarov supports Yanukovich’s accusation. After Shcherban’s death, Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine, headed by Tymoshenko, made large profits in the local market.  “So this person (Tymoshenko) is very controversial and those who want to make a symbol of a fighter for democracy out of her must first get to grips with the facts,” Azarov told Reuters in an interview.

Olexander Tymoshenko, Tymoshenko’s husband, has public accused Yanukovich for using the government to carry out a personal vendetta against his wife. “This is a new step in the evolution of dictatorship … You, Yanukovich, and your followers have delivered the verdict to the leader of unified opposition.”, said Tymoshenko.

Yulia Tymoshenko lead the 2004 Orange Revolution which halted Yaunkovich’s first attempt at for the presidency. After losing the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovich, she and numerous opposition leaders faced charges for corruption.

For further information, please see:

Chicago Tribune — Tymoshenko’s husband cries foul over murder charge – 14 June 2012

United Press International — EU has eye on Tymoshenko case –14 June 2012

Chicago Tribune — Ukraine leader stirs Tymoshenko row with murder charge –13 June 2012