The Kyiv Post made several efforts to contact Ukraine’s
General Prosecutor’s Office, but no officials were available to comment on the
case. According to Ukrainian
news agency UNN, police also suspect Zakharchuk of spying on
Ukraine and stoking unrest in the country, but those charges were not described
in the warrant issued against him.
Despite braving bullets to fight for freedom first from
the Yanukovych regime, then from Russian-backed militants, Ukrainians are
increasingly forgetting that the right to free expression applies not only to the
expression of views they agree with.
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Zakharchuk’s arrest comes hot on the heels of treason
accusations brought on Feb. 8 against Ivano-Frankivsk resident Ruslan Kotsaba, detained
after he posted a video address to Ukraine’s President Poroshenko opposing
conscription in Ukraine. Kotsaba claimed he would rather spend up to five years
in jail for refusal to be drafted into the army than start killing his “fellow
citizens who live in the east.”
International
human rights watchdog Amnesty International considers Kotsaba to be a prisoner
of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful expression of his views. He is
the first prisoner of conscience to be declared in Ukraine since the Euromaidan
revolution, indeed the first prisoner of conscience to be declared in Ukraine
in almost five years.
“You
can take different views on Ruslan Kotsaba’s position, but by arresting him for
stating a particular viewpoint Ukrainian authorities are violating the key
human right of freedom of expression, which Ukrainians stood up for on the
Maidan,” said Tetyana Mazur, Director of Amnesty International Ukraine.
“He
must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Both
Zakharchuk and Kotsaba now face up to 15 years in jail, the maximum term for
treason in Ukraine. Zakharchuk had returned to Ukraine on a
regular visit to see his family when he was picked up by police, Nevskie
Novosti’s chief editor, Vladislav Kraev, told reporters.
Kraev added that Zakharchuk only writes about local news
in St. Petersburg and sports, and had not been assigned to anything related to
the military and political situation in Ukraine. Nevskie Novosti issued a
formal statement saying:
“Nevskie
Novosti expresses indignation at the actions by Ukrainian authorities and
demands the immediate release of its journalist. We also call on all our
colleagues, regardless of beliefs or political persuasion, to stand up for
Andrey Zakharchuk, whose absurd criminal prosecution contravenes not only
international but Ukrainian law.”
Kyiv Post editor Maxim Tucker can be reached at tucker@kyivpost.com or via twitter @MaxRTucker
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