Prisoners in frontline territories often only have remote access to lawyers and remain the most vulnerable in wartime, according to Barristers partners Oleksiy Shevchuk and Oleksandr Shadrin.
“Prisoners remain the most vulnerable people in this regard. They cannot leave the premises during an alarm and go to a shelter. Sometimes, being located near the front line or military facilities becomes critical, or, as in the case of the Kyiv SIZO, which is located near the Lukyanivska metro station,” the lawyers told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
According to the Ministry of Justice, following the tragic incident at the Bilenky correctional colony, the evacuation of the following penitentiary institutions has begun: the Zaporizhzhia pre-trial detention center, the Vilnianska correctional facility (No. 11), and the Kamyanska correctional colony (No. 101)..
“This information is partially confirmed by rumors among prisoners. In particular, one of Shadrin’s clients, who is being held in the Zaporizhzhia pre-trial detention center, reported plans to evacuate them to the Dniprovskyi pre-trial detention center,” the lawyers said.
According to their information, no transfers to the court of appeal are currently being carried out from the Zaporizhzhia pretrial detention center.
“In the best case scenario, there will be a video conference, if there is electricity and communication. If only the prisoner is relocated and the court remains in the same region as before, the question of ensuring/not ensuring personal participation in the court hearing (at least in the first instance) will inevitably arise,” the agency’s interlocutors noted.
Shevchuk and Shadrin pointed out that prisoners in frontline areas often only have remote access to lawyers.
“Many lawyers have been mobilized or have left for safer regions. Of course, this situation can lead to problems with the right to a fair (adversarial) trial, which includes the possibility of confidential communication with a lawyer without witnesses from the police or the Security Service of Ukraine,” the lawyers said.
In addition, they drew attention to the fact that with the start of the large-scale invasion, a number of correctional colonies and pre-trial detention centers were occupied along with prisoners and staff, who were subsequently accused of treason or collaboration.
“For example, a dog handler at one of the penitentiary institutions in Kherson received such a charge: 12 years’ imprisonment with the right to hold relevant positions for 10 years (the relevant entry was made in the Register of Court Decisions – IF-U). Often, after the occupation, prisoners are encouraged to join the armed forces of the aggressor country, and if they refuse, they are thrown grenades into their cells or shot,” the lawyers said.
In addition, Shevchuk and Shadrin reported that penitentiary institutions remain significantly underfunded and conditions of detention are largely inhumane, as confirmed by numerous ECHR rulings, in particular due to overcrowding.
“After the repeal of the ‘Savchenko law’ (adopted in 2015, the law provided that one day of pre-trial detention in a detention center before sentencing was counted as two days of imprisonment in a correctional colony), the problem of overcrowding in detention centers and correctional colonies arose again. This is facilitated by the criminalization of theft and other property crimes, which have become serious due to the new “under martial law” designation, which is applied automatically. This phenomenon is also facilitated by the growing number of military personnel and suspects of high treason – categories for which the legislature has allowed detention without alternative,“ the lawyers note.
”These circumstances are expected to be the subject of review by the ECHR again,” Shevchuk and Shadrin predict.
According to media reports, in 2014, control was lost over 28 penal institutions in the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea, where about 20,000 prisoners are being held. In 2022, another 12 institutions with more than 3,000 people came under the control of the occupiers.
According to the Ministry of Justice, since the start of the full-scale invasion, 10 penal institutions have been evacuated from the combat zones and 12 evacuation operations have been carried out, although the list of specific institutions has not been made public.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/1098389.html
