Poroshenko: Almost 100 judges who delivered illegal verdicts against Maidan activists hiding in Crimea
Punishment for the crimes of the previous government, which led to the deaths of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes in the center of Kyiv, is inevitable, despite the fact that the organizers and executors of these crimes are hiding abroad and in the occupied territories, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said.
"The executors and organizers of these crimes are hiding from the people's wrath and fair punishment, abroad and in the occupied territories. According to the Ministry of Justice, almost 100 judges who imposed unlawful decisions against Maidan activists are now hiding in Crimea," the president's press service quoted him as saying on Friday.
According to the president, the death of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes was caused by the signing of dictatorial laws a year ago, on January 16, 2014. "We have no right to forget this," Poroshenko noted.
The President stated that he would sign the Law "On amendments to several legislative acts on the inevitability of punishment of persons, who have absconded to the temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine or to the anti-terrorist operation zone," and noted that the legal basis for trials in absentia of criminals place on the international wanted list had already been made. "We cannot waste a single hour. Our law enforcement agencies will have an opportunity to submit the criminal proceedings to the courts immediately," the President said.
The President also requested that MPs reach a compromise on selective confiscation. "The regime of special confiscation shouldn't be comprehensive, but the decision to allow the return of stolen property to Ukraine is an issue of principle," Petro Poroshenko said.
According to the President, this doesn’t mean that innocent people would be convicted. "Still, if a person is guilty, he shouldn't think that he will manage to hide money in foreign accounts… This money will be returned to Ukraine. Just as we returned UAH 3.7 billion stolen in the course of the annexation of Crimea to Ukraine yesterday… We will also work on the return of funds stolen from Ukraine by the previous authorities," the President said.
As reported earlier, the Verkhovna Rada passed the corresponding bill No. 1767 in the first reading and adopted it as a whole on Thursday.
The president's press secretary Sviatoslav Tsehalko said that Poroshenko was willing to sign the law foreseeing the possibility of trials in absentia of those suspected or accused of crime if they had been put on the international wanted list, or if they are hiding in temporarily occupied Crimea or in the anti-terrorist operation zone.
In turn, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that law enforcement agencies were investigating a number of criminal proceedings regarding former high-ranking officials, over the theft of Ukraine's money. He specified that it was connected to the improvement of procedures for trial in absentia, so that «scoundrels hiding from Ukrainian justice could incur legal liability, and Ukraine could receive the badly needed money".
Thus, if a person fails to appear after being summoned by an investigator, the prosecutor's office or a court, a suspect or those accused, who have been placed on the international wanted list, might be tried in absentia.
Before that, the law had foreseen that the reason for a trial in absentia was that a suspect was outside Ukrainian territory.