Crooks of Ukraine’s crooks

The number of innocent convicted is increasing in Ukraine

In Ukraine, the number of innocent people who are arrested and accused of crimes is increasing. One in five who are in prison is believed to be innocent. The echo has met Andrei, who lost eight years of his life in prison.

– Almost every 40 seconds a Ukrainian policeman arrests someone in violation of the law, says Andrei Jedenka, who works for Kharkivs human rights organization. Andrei knows what it means to be picked up by police on the street and accused of a crime he did not commit. He was on vacation outside of Odessa, and despite an alibi for the day when he allegedly committed the crime, he was sentenced to eight years in prison 2001.

– I have myself lived through everything it pertains. In a cell meant for three we were eleven, and I realized I was not alone to be innocently condemned. He began to fight for other people’s rights within the prison boundaries. But it led to that he was treated even worse, was put into solitary confinement and kept in prison throughout the whole sentence. He still following three years of freedom has not received any compensation but his case is in the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Human rights organizations in Ukraine are witnessing a disturbing trend over the past two years, when the number of innocent people apprehended has doubled to over one million. And it’s not just about politics, as it is with Yulia Tymoshenko.

– Unfortunately, I notice that the situation has deteriorated within the judiciary community and the police, says Andrei. The polis own monitoring of the upholding of the human rights compliance has been abolished, and instead of justice it is about keeping up to a Soviet mirroring system where a crime is solved by a sentence, regardless of guilt or not.

Ekot