The third difference

The new trial of the former prime minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko started in the Kyivsky District Court of Kharkiv on April 19. This time the case concerns economic crimes Tymoshenko had supposedly committed being the head of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU).

From the very first day of the process it can be said without prejudice that “Kirieiev’s scenario” will repeat. The electronic system selected a young judge who deliberately rejects motions of the defense. Reportedly, Kostiantyn Sadovsky is 36 years old. It is his first resonant process. Previously he used to recalculate pensions for war children and punish cell phone thieves.

Just like in Kyiv early in the morning the double meeting started near the court with the participation of supporters and opponents of the number-one prisoner. According to the police, the meeting gathered up to 5,000 people. However, before the noon meeting participants started leaving.

“I was surprised that we were approached by people who were just passing by going to work, they said: ‘We do not care if it is Yulia or not, but we are fed up with the authorities from Donetsk!” Ostap Semerak from BYuT shared his impressions. “Can you imagine that in Kharkiv where people had voted for the Party of Regions people express their anti-regions moods? It is a very interesting signal!”

However, there are several differences as well. Firstly, in Kyiv they made students go to the Pechersk Court at night to take places. Now instead of students there are 30 deputies from the Party of Regions.

The second difference is certainly a trestle bed. “We photographed the place for the accused: there is a wide trestle bed there to lie down and a wooden bench with a back. It means that they are going to take Tymoshenko to the court providing her with a bed,” Serhii Vlasenko told the journalists.

Finally, the third difference concerns not the process itself, but the attitude towards it. The puppet justice has probably become the main newsmaker of the time. The news about trials seems to be coming from the horn of plenty. People get used to everything. Even to arbitrary justice. Probably, the idea that Tymoshenko will do her time has deeply rooted in people’s minds. She will be in prison at least till the end of Yanukovych’s presidential term.

However, the sociologist Yevhen Holovakha believes that the point is not in this habit. All of this proves that the Ukrainian civil society is still immature. “Today we can see people being passive and unwilling to be responsible for their choice. We have to protect our position! Protect those who we voted for. Where are millions of people who voted for Tymoshenko? If tens or hundreds thousand of people had gone into streets there would have been a different talk. The minority has to protect itself.”

It is significant that many people from the Party of Regions support this thesis, too. They say that if people had come there would have been a completely different scenario. So, the thing is not only in the selective justice and repressions but in our indifference as well.

TO THE POINT

“The former prime mister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko is especially stressed, she is more scared than ordinary prisoners,” director of the Berlin clinic Charite, professor in neurology Karl Max Einhaeupl opines. He declared it in his interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta. He emphasized that the information about patients’ health, Tymoshenko’s health in particular, is confidential. “Certainly, I have examined Tymoshenko in the prison. I know that there is a constant discussion whether she is sick or not. I can tell you for sure: she is sick. She has a vertebral hernia causing a strong pain. She can hardly walk and has to lie down nearly all the time,” Einhaeupl remarked.