Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

14:10:44
05/10/2016

Center of Freedom of Speech

On 29th September, a scheduled court session on the case of Dmitry Vasilets and Evgeny Timonin did not take place due to the fact that allegedly a car of the escort broke down and the guys couldn’t be brought to court. The trial was scheduled for 14.30. This was reported only at 13.10, when the lawyer Svetlana Novitskaya had just driven up to the court. In connection with this, already in court there was a conversation with the head of the Judicial Commission Zayets Anatoly Vladimirovich, who reported that there will definitely not be a court session today, but that the next hearing was planned for 6th October, as it was planned earlier.

But as the measure of restraint – the detention of suspects Vasilets and Timonin – expired on the 4th of October, the Prosecutor’s office was obliged to conduct the hearing by any means. So, an UNSCHEDULED URGENT COURT HEARING was arranged for 3rd October, at 10 am.

Over the weekend Dmitry Vasilets became ill, had a fever, and on Monday he was not able to be taken away due to the fact that he was not able for health reasons to go to court. The Prosecutor upon learning about this called the Zhytomyr SBU and a third of the department drove to the prison to collect Vasilets. At 16:00 the suspects were brought in (6 hours after the official start of the trial), at 16:15 the trial started, in which the judges said that the defence was notified, but did not appear in court (while no one notified Svetlana Novitskaya, and Vasilets and Timonin needed to provide the defenders of the lawyer. This decision was made at 18.15, when the court had officially finished its work and Dmitry Vasilets was in the hospital in Zhytomyr region, as he felt very ill. At 19:30 lawyers from the State were brought in and by 20:00 the court hearing continued.

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At the hearing, the lawyers themselves said that they still hadn’t examine 39 volumes of the case, but read the indictment and already judging from it, it was possible to conclude that the Prosecutor unjustifiably required their detention, with no argument!!!

As Vasilets was in the hospital in Zhytomyr region, they decided to hold the first court session on the case of Timonin, who categorically refused a State lawyer because his lawyer was not informed, and the new lawyer is not aware of his case that they themselves recognized, but the judges ignored these gross procedural violations and despite this, from 20:00 to 21:30, listened to his case and gave a verdict on the measure of restraint of Timonin, extending the measure of restraint until October 7, 2016!

At 21:30 Dmitry Vasilets was brought from the hospital, which earlier in the day said that for health reasons he could not attend the trial. With this information, the court came to the conclusion that without him, without his lawyer, and even without an agreement with the state lawyer to solve the issue in this case (all three points are illegal!!!) and issued a similar verdict, like for Timonin, extending the measure to 7 Oct 2016. The trial ended at 22:45, after 13 hours after the stated start!..

The next hearing is scheduled for October 6th at 11:00

Do not be indifferent, take the time and support journalists and human rights activists Dmitry Vasilets and Evgeny Timonin, who the SBU is so afraid to see out of a prison cell!!! Freedom of speech and human rights must be respected in Ukraine!

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