Monitoring the case of V. Muravitsky (court hearing 30.08.2019)

On August 30, 2019, in the Korolevskiy District Court of Zhytomyr, a regular court session was held in the case of the journalist Vasily Muravitsky, who is accused of treason and encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine (part 2 of article 110, part 1 of article 111, part 2 of article 161, part 1, article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) through his journalistic activities.

The course of the session. The session began with the announcement of the change of prosecutor. Prosecutor Levchenko was succeeded by prosecutor Yakhimchuk.

Prosecutor Yakhimchuk continued to review written evidence and materials obtained as a result of covert investigative actions. The prosecutor provided screenshots of the computer screen as evidence, according to the prosecutor’s office, which belonged to the accused. Screenshots of correspondence in the Telegram program were considered, as well as screenshots taken during typing. According to the prosecutor, Muravitsky received instructions from a certain person (whom the prosecutor called the curator and received a comment from the lawyer and judge) for writing articles on certain topics.

The lawyer asked the court to note that the evidence had already been examined, that the evidence was inadmissible, and that the prosecutor was abusing his official position. The prosecutor replied that the lawyer should not prevent the prosecutor from fulfilling his procedural duties. The study of evidence was continued.

Since the protocol with the evidence was not fully considered, it will continue to be considered at the next session. As a result, the court did not accept the lawyer’s request not to attach the case file.

At the end of the session, Muravitsky filed a petition for the possibility of attending Sunday service in the church, every Sunday. Having specified the time spent in the church and its location, the court granted the petition. Also, the defendants were requested to visit the dental office, but the court rejected it because the request did not contain official information about the time of appointment.

The next session is scheduled for September 26, 2019.

Experts from the International Society for Human Rights will continue to monitor this trial. The previous materials can be found here.