One year ago in Ukraine, on 27 November 2018, the National Bureau of Investigation began its work as the central executive body carrying out law enforcement activities with the aim of preventing, detecting, suppressing, solving and investigating crimes within its jurisdiction. Since that date, the mechanism of convicting in absentia has effectively been blocked in Ukraine.

The reason for this was the content of article 20-1, added in May 2016 to section XI “Transitional provisions” of the Criminal Procedure Code (UPK), which provided for some simplification of the procedures for special pre-trial investigation and special court proceedings, but only until the day the National Bureau of Investigation began its activities. This article expanded the grounds for using court proceedings in the absence of the suspect/accused and the declaration of suspects as internationally wanted was no longer mandatory.

On November 30 2018, a draft law was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which provided for amendments to the UPK in order to more clearly regulate the issue of special pre-trial investigation and court proceedings which could solve the problem of Interpol’s refusal to declare suspects/accused persons as wanted because of signs of political persecution.

However, the People’s Deputies of the VIII convocation twice voted against the draft law’s inclusion into the day’s agenda for consideration, despite the fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office urged the Verkhovna Rada to support amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine with regards to extending the period of validity of conviction in absentia.

Due to this, for example, materials from criminal proceedings against former terrorist leaders of “DPR” Igor Bezler (Besa) and Igor Girkin (Strelkov), containing records of brutal torture against captive members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, law enforcement officials and civilians, cannot be transferred to the courts; hundreds of people on terrorism charges have never received convictions, even if in absentia.

We, the members of the independent, international civil society platform CivilM+ for the resolution of the conflict in Donbas, advocate for the following the principle of inevitable punishment for crimes committed and call on the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the IX convocation to consider the possibility of reinstating the mechanism of conviction in absentia in Ukraine, which will make it possible to conduct trials in absentia of people who committed war crimes during the armed conflict in Donbas.