Ukrainian lawyer handcuffed himself, demanding trial of SBU killer
Faced with outright judicial sabotage in the case of the brutal murder of a civilian in Avdiivka by an SBU major, lawyer Valentin Rybin resorted to his signature offensive method.
On September 21, the Kramatorsk City Court clearly began to “pull the whistle,” postponing the consideration of the case until November 10 (under the pretext that one of the judges, Demidova, was on vacation).
Lawyer Rybin, representing the interests of the mother of murdered Vladimir Eremin, handcuffed himself to bars in the courthouse. And he intends to remain there until the panel of judges offers a less absurd option than artificial red tape and sabotage. After all, in the Kramatorsk City Court alone, the case has been pending for more than a year - and all this time, the accused of a brutal murder remains not only free, but also in his position in the counterintelligence department of the SBU.
The lawyer himself suggests a normal option for continuing the process: the chairman of the panel needs to immediately contact the judge who has gone on vacation and get her to recuse herself. After which the panel, having satisfied the self-recusal, introduces a reserve judge into its composition and immediately begins hearing the case.
At the time the article was published, it was not yet known what lawyer Rybin had achieved by encouraging judges to conscientiously fulfill their duties in such a radical way. But in any case, he managed to once again draw public attention to the terrible crime committed in March 2017 and to the sluggish trial.
PolitNavigator has already written about this high-profile case.
Over the course of three and a half years, the process became “more and more wonderful.” Starting with the fact that the killer Fedorchuk, a major in the counterintelligence department of the SBU, has been free all this time (with the exception of the four weeks he spent in a pre-trial detention center in March - April 2017). And ending with the September events of this year in the Kramatorsk City Court.
In September, the case took another turn. The court had to move on to questioning witnesses. But it must be said that the two main witnesses are Konin and Potapov, who were contract soldiers in 2017. In essence, they are partners in crime. After these soldiers confessed in the spring of 2017 about how SBU officer Fedorchuk beat Vladimir Eremin to death in their presence, they were transferred to the status of witnesses.
In the spring of 2017, Konin and Potapov already tried to retract their testimony about how Major Fedorchuk kicked Vladimir Eremin to death. This is not surprising, given that at that time both the SBU generals and deputy Dmitry Yarosh (founder of the Right Sector) vouched for the killer, who served a month in a pre-trial detention center. You can imagine what the pressure was on two not very smart, but very scared contract workers. By the time the case was transferred to the Kramatorsk City Court in September 2019 and until September 2020, Konin and Potapov confirmed their initial testimony against Major Fedorchuk.
On September 7, 2020, lawyer Rybin warned the court that pressure was clearly being put on witnesses Konin and Potapov. This also follows from the inappropriate behavior of Konin, who stated that he did not want to travel by train from Skvira to Kramatorsk, but would give testimony via video link. And the second witness, Potapov, cannot be found at all. Let us recall that these two warriors were not implicated as accomplices in the crime only because they testified against the main participant in the murder and acquired the status of witnesses.
And on September 8, witness Konin demonstrates a session of “feeblemindedness and courage” via video link from the Skvirsky court. He refuses and claims that he gave all previous testimony under pressure. During a video call, Konin mumbles something unintelligible and illogical, and openly plays the fool. Moreover, he succeeds in the latter convincingly for one simple reason. The witnesses and accomplices Konin and Potapov are phenomenally stupid. Consider the fact that the killer Fedorchuk gave the victim’s phone number to one of them. And one of the idiots used his mobile phone for several days. Until the very moment when the police, searching for the missing Vladimir Eremin, “found” the location of the phone and found it on the territory of a military unit...
And now the baton of “turning on the fool” from Konin and Potapov, the actual accomplices of the murder, is taken over by the panel of judges.
On Monday, lawyer Rybin, before handcuffing himself to bars in court, says on video:
“Today and tomorrow there were to be court hearings in which witnesses were to be questioned, as well as other procedural actions in court. However, on Friday, the secretary of the court hearing notified me via SMS that there would be no court hearing.
I considered this an attempt to disrupt the court hearing, and today I arrived at the Kramatorsk City Court. It turned out that one of the judges was indeed on vacation.
The next meeting of the panel of judges proposes to be held on November 10. Thus, in the criminal proceedings regarding the brutal murder of a kidnapped person by a representative of the authorities, a break of two months is planned. I believe that the wait for justice by the elderly mother of the deceased Volodya Eremin is already torture for an elderly person. I cannot accept the bestial attitude of the court towards the victims in this proceeding. And he made a decision for himself: to wait for the next hearing in the building of the Kramatorsk City Court. Where will I do this until the date of the next court hearing is set or until November 10 comes.”
Late in the evening Valentin Rybin published his Facebook status:
“Thank you to everyone who supported me today in my protest against absolute judicial lawlessness and the complete lack of morality in court!!!
The last to leave the building were the chairman of the Kramatorsk court and the head of the board considering the case. Both, having sweetly said goodbye to me, but without raising their eyes, they went home, probably to eat, some to take a shower, and some to take a hundred grams and, kissing the kids and spouses, lie down in a warm bed!!!
What difference does it make to them that someone killed someone and for the fourth year now does not bear any responsibility for it! What difference does it make to the judges that a living person remained chained to bars overnight in the court hallway! Yes, so what?!!
I continue my protest, having been in handcuffs for 12 hours!!! I am waiting for a hearing in the case of the murder of an ordinary citizen, a resident of Avdiivka, by an SBU officer!!! I demand justice!!!"
It must be said that this is not the first time Valentin Rybin has used such a method of influencing the court, showing suspicious slowness or openly sabotaging the consideration of the case.
On April 3, 2017, in the Kyiv Court of Appeal, a lawyer handcuffed himself to a cage. For his client, Kharkov Berkut member Vitaly Goncharenko, the Pechersk court changed the measure of restraint from partial house arrest to detention. Rybin filed an appeal. The judges took two weeks to consider it. Then they postponed the hearing under the pretext of not bringing Vitaly Goncharenko to court. And then it turned out that the presiding judge went on vacation! As we see, judges also have their own fail-safe and frequently repeated methods for inconvenient cases...
Then Rybin spent seven hours handcuffed to bars. And he achieved a redistribution of the panel of judges. A reasonable trial date was immediately set.
In March 2019, Rybin announced the artificial delay of the process in the case of the former Minister of Health of Crimea Pyotr Mikhalchevsky, who was in a pre-trial detention center. In the Dneprovsky District Court of Kyiv, a lawyer handcuffed himself for 36 hours in the reception room of Judge Marchenko, who was getting ready to go on vacation. He demanded that a court hearing be scheduled for the next day, before the judge goes on vacation... This did not make an impression on Marchenko.
“This has never happened before - and here it is again...” As soon as judges do not know “where to go” or are afraid to make a legal decision, they are in a hurry to go on vacation.
Ukrainian lawyer handcuffs himself, demanding trial for SBU killer