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newthinking

(3,982 posts)
Fri Dec 18, 2015, 05:59 AM Dec 2015

Ukraine: When the Right Sector Runs the Courtroom [View all]

Ukraine: When the Right Sector Runs the Courtroom

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/ukraine-when-the-right-sector-runs-the-courtroom/

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[font size=3]In Ukraine there is almost daily right-wing violence against the police and judiciary.[/font][/center]


[font size=2]On November 30, 100 members of the Right Sector stormed the Malinowski Court in Odessa. Security officers were simply pushed aside. Masked men and muscular women stood threateningly before the three judges. The judges had approved a ruling to release on bail five people detained since the violent events of May 2, 2014 in the city.

The judges were threatened by masked vigilantes if they didn’t sign letters of resignation. A video report captures the confrontation. It shows the anxious looks on the judges’ faces. They signed the resignation letters and exited the courtroom.

A short time later, the ruling to release the five anti-Maidan protesters was reversed, due, it was said, to “the failure to take account of certain facts”. Their detentions were extended for two months.

Jurisprudence in Odessa is experiencing black days in the month of December. Only five weeks ago, a committee of experts of the Council of Europe issued a lengthy report sharply criticizing the Ukrainian justice system because of the protracted investigation of the events of May 2, 2014 in Odessa. On that day 18 months ago in the city, six people were shot dead by unidentified men on both sides of a street battle between Maidan and anti-Maidan forces. Shortly after on the same day, 42 people died in an arson attack on the Trades Union House in the center of the city where government critics (anti-Maidan) had fled. Not one of the arsonists is in custody. It is not known what stage the investigation into the arson attack has reached. [The full, 91-page report of the Council of Europe is here. News reports are here in English and here in German.][/font]

Right sector threatens judges with grenades

In recent weeks, attacks by the Right Sector against judges and high government officials are piling up all over Ukraine.


Continued:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/ukraine-when-the-right-sector-runs-the-courtroom/
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