Page 34 - Report on the infringement of rights and guarantees of attorneys in Ukraine

DENYING ATTORNEYS TO THEIR CLIENTS
AND REMOVAL FROM PROCEEDINGS

FAILURE TO DELIVER A DEFENDANT TO A COURTROOM AND INTERFERENCE
WITH THE PROVISION OF LEGAL AID BY A DEFENCE COUNSEL

A defendant is not delivered to a courtroom at the designated time for a court hearing, while the
judges and other participants in a trial are already present (information on monitoring the
observance of the right to a fair trial by representatives of ISHR).

Andrii Domanskyi
attorney of journalist Vasyl Muravytskyi
Attorney Andrii Domanskyi had to travel a long way in the trial of journalist Vasyl
Muravytskyi (Zhytomyr) just to find out that the hearing had been adjourned. A similar
situation occurred in the trial of minor Maksym Nitsenko (Izyum).

Valentyn Rybin
attorney of the three-time Taekwondo champion of Ukraine Daria Mastikasheva,
accused of treason

The accused, Daria Mastikasheva (Dnipro), was systematically absent from the courtroom
during her stay in a psychiatric clinic (for a forced psychiatric examination). During the
entire time of her stay in the clinic, D. Mastikasheva never made it to any court hearing on
the defence appeal from the decision to send her for a psychiatric examination.
Representatives of the medical facility reported that they had no authority to deliver the
suspected person to a court, while the prosecutor's office stated that after sending D.
Mastikasheva to the clinic, this body was no longer responsible for her transfer (in
particular, to court hearings). Attempts by the court to compel the prosecutor to deliver
the accused person for further hearings were unsuccessful . During her stay in the
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psychiatric clinic, she was never able to appear before a court; as a result, the defence
was not able to obtain consideration of an appeal against the decision to send her for a
compulsory psychiatric examination.

The fact of periodic absence of a defendant's access to a judge raises
questions about the observance of the principle of rule of law. This situation
violates the Convention. In the Batalin v. Russia and Gorshkov v. Ukraine cases,
the ECHR ruled that the access of a detained person to a judge must not
depend on the good faith of the administration of a prison or a medical facility,
and such actions constitute a violation of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention.

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