The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union will provide all life-sentenced prisoners the opportunity to tell their story

Now every person sentenced to life imprisonment will have the right to tell the whole world their version of the events that cost them their freedom.

It all started with a letter to the UHHRU from a person sentenced to life imprisonment. They did not demand assistance in reviewing the court decisions concerning them. They did not demand to “intervene”, “correct”, and “punish” those guilty of torture and the artificial creation of prosecution evidence. This applicant asked for only one thing – to post on the organisation’s website information about their criminal case in their own account and vision of all its circumstances and facts.

Human rights defenders say that they had well-founded objections, doubts, and hesitations. However, identical appeals from other convicts continued to arrive at the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. The UHHRU does not claim the truthfulness or untruthfulness of such stories. Although, their presentation can often be so detailed, and the proof of the committed violations so well-argued, that it leaves no doubt about their truthfulness.

One of the main arguments “for” creating the column was the behaviour of the Supreme Court in the case of Oleksandr Yaremenko. After all, Ukrainian judges effectively refused to review his case after the European Court of Human Rights established a gross violation at the national level of the right to a fair trial and freedom from torture.

Representatives of the UHHRU are convinced that there are quite a few people who have absolutely nothing to do with the terrible crimes incriminated to them. Many of them are convicted only because they were caught under the wheels of the repressive punitive machine that has been operating here for many decades. In this system, the rights of the individual are neglected, and not all doubts regarding guilt are interpreted in favour of the defendant.

Human rights defenders hope that this small rostrum will become for some life-sentenced prisoners another important step on the long path to rehabilitation.

The UHHRU also admits that someone will take advantage of this opportunity to sincerely repent for what they have done and publicly ask for forgiveness.

Read the column at this link: http://www.helsinki.org.ua/index.php?r=a1b2c1d21