Court decides against opposition Deputies Parubiy and Hrymchak

The Pechersky District Court in Kyiv on Monday decided that the order to institute criminal proceedings against two members of the Verkhovna Rada from the opposition over the events of 27 April was justified.

The lawyer representing Yuriy Hrymchak and Andriy Parubiy said that this ruling will be appealed.

As reported here http://kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/67172/ , it was announced on May 14 that the Kyiv prosecutor had initiated a criminal investigation against the two deputies from the opposition Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defence party for their part in the events of April 27. The investigator’s appeal to the Verkhovna Rada for these deputies’ immunity to be removed was supported by the Prosecutor General.

The events preceding the vote ratifying the highly controversial Kharkiv accords between Presidents Yanukovych and Medvedev received world coverage and were indeed spectacular.

However there is no evidence of any criminal investigation having been brought against those who seriously injured opposition Deputy Oles Doniy, or real attempts to find all those responsible for the chaos and damage. From all the pictures available there is nothing to suggest that only these two members of the opposition bear responsibility.

The two men announced late last week that they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.