Statue of limitation may expire in 60 Euromaidan cases without a verdict

There is a risk that the statute of limitations will expire before the defendants are sentenced in about 60 cases related to the Revolution of Dignity. But this does not apply to the former president and members of his team. 

Source: Oleksii Donskyi, head of the Department for Organisation, Procedural Guidance of Pre-trial Investigation and Support of Public Prosecution in Criminal Proceedings on Crimes Committed in Connection with Mass Protests in 2013-2014 at the Prosecutor General's Office, on the air during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Euromaidan, Donskyi noted that this year the case against the former leadership of Ukraine was sent to court. It includes more than 1,800 volumes.

The Prosecutor General's Office hopes that the preparatory hearing will begin soon, but they do not know when the verdict will be delivered.

In total, the courts are considering 150 cases involving about 300 people. About 70 cases remain under pre-trial investigation. 

The main problem is having time to get verdicts in those cases where the deadlines are expiring, Donskoy said.

Quote: "There are about 60 such cases (in which the statute of limitations expires). This does not apply, for example, to cases against people who are hiding from the investigation because the statute of limitations for bringing criminal responsibility is interrupted there. 

This also does not apply to cases of particularly serious crimes, including those punishable by life imprisonment. In other words, there is no risk in these cases. 

We are talking about cases involving serious crimes where the perpetrators have been identified and where the cases have been pending in courts for a long time. There are about 60 such cases. We have received some verdicts this year, but it would be extremely important for us to ensure that these cases are considered within a reasonable time and that they result in verdicts."

Details: According to Donskyi, even if it is an acquittal or a guilty verdict, it is a verdict, i.e. a legally significant decision in the case, and not an expiration of the statute of limitations, when a person is released from criminal liability on non-rehabilitating grounds, but "there is no verdict, i.e. there is no legal assessment of the actions either".

The representative of the Prosecutor General's Office noted that actual sentences could have been delivered earlier if the special procedures had been amended earlier. 

Background: On 21 November 2013, Euromaidan began in Ukraine because Viktor Yanukovych's team refused to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. 

Following the dispersal of the youth on 30 November, the protests escalated into the Revolution of Dignity, followed by violent confrontation. It ended with the shooting of more than a hundred protesters in the centre of Kyiv in February 2014, Yanukovych's flight to Russia via Crimea, and the change of power in Kyiv.

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