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Sunday, April 10, 2016

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE D.P.R SUPREME COURT: EDUARD YAKUBOVKSY Эдуард Якубовский



            I will post information about several people in Novorossiya who are in favor of capital punishment and tough punishment on crimes from several internet sources.

  
The appointed pro-Russian president of the 'Supreme Court' in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Yakubovsky, poses on November 28, 2014 in the court in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Yakubovsky, a Russian citizen who favors the death penalty, he is trying to become the new face of justice in rebel-head east Ukraine. appointed president of the 'Supreme Court' in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic late September, the burly ex-investigator from Moscow says he's now busy vetting judges as he attempts to set up a legal system in this illegal state. AFP PHOTO / ERIC FEFERBERG

Ukraine rebel leaders lay down law in eastern area

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT:The president of a new court said that Ukrainian law is the basis for the new legal system, which includes a reintroduction of the death penalty

AFP, DONETSK, Ukraine
Mon, Dec 01, 2014 - Page 6

  
A Russian citizen who favours the death penalty, Eduard Yakubovsky, is trying to become the new face of justice in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic
Eduard Yakubovsky, a Russian citizen who favors the death penalty, is trying to become the new face of justice in rebel-held east Ukraine.

Appointed president of the “supreme court” in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in late September, the burly former investigator from Moscow says he is busy vetting judges as he attempts to set up a legal system in the state that Kiev and the West consider illegal.

Dressed in military fatigues, Yakubovsky, 55, is a far cry from the typical image of a staid magistrate in a gown and suit.

“Believe me, at a time like this, these are the most suitable clothes for the job,” Yakubovsky said in an interview at Donetsk city court.

“We haven’t yet come up with a dress code for the judges that we’ll swear in,” he said.

The justice system collapsed in Ukraine’s eastern rebel zones after the pro-Russian uprising began in April, with the rule of the gun quickly replacing the rule of law. Arbitrary and brutal punishments have been meted out by armed commanders with no oversight or accountability.

The UN in July accused rebels of conducting a “reign of fear and terror” that has seen people abducted, tortured and even executed. Since then, online videos and rumors have swirled of popular tribunals handing down death sentences at mob hearings.

Now, as the Kremlin-backed separatists tighten their grip over their territory, they are looking to give themselves the trappings of a legitimate state and greater control over the population.

Yakubovsky, who has a Russian passport, but says he has lived in Ukraine for 30 years, claims he is currently sifting through the resumes of judges and lawyers who once worked in the Ukrainian system and want to sign up to administer law under a new regime.

“At the moment, we’re going through all their documents before appointing any judges,” he said.

“We have to check the background of each candidate,” he added.

It is not just about hiring judges — the criminal code is also a work-in-progress.

Despite being in a fight to the death with Kiev, Yakubovsky says the rebels have accepted Ukrainian law as the basis for their system “when it doesn’t contradict with the our texts.”

They have already introduced new laws — most notably the re-introduction of the death penalty, which was officially banned in Ukraine in 2000.

“We have the death penalty and it will be applied,” Yakubovsky says. “For crimes against life, like aggravated murder, some military crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Until the new legal system gets up and running, it is down to local commanders to dole out whatever justice they see fit.

“If it is a combatant from our side who has committed an offense, then the head of military police decides on the punishment,” a rebel tasked with security on Donetsk’s streets told reporters.

“If it is a civilian, then it is the commander of the group that arrests them that takes the decision,” he said, refusing to give his name.

Particularly in their sights are drug dealers and users who they say are still operating in the region.

A man was recently arrested for taking methamphetamine and jailed for 15 days and forced to clean out all the prison cells, the rebel said.

Another individual, accused of manufacturing and selling “large amounts” of narcotics, has been in jail for three-and-a-half months awaiting trial.

Yakubovsky said that innocent people might have got caught up in the rebel dragnet. The problem is, he does not know exactly how many there are and when they will ever come to trial.

“It’s true that there could be some innocent people among them,” he said. “We’ll see when they go to trial. If that is the case, they’ll be set free.”

INTERNET SOURCE:

Ukraine's rebels mete out rough justice in authority vacuum
By Mstyslav Chernov (Associated Press) | Updated April 29, 2015 - 2:45am

A man stands tied to a post by pro-Russian rebels, accused of stealing from local people, with a poster around his neck reading "I am marauder, I beat and steal from civilians", standing next to a highway in Krasnyi Partyzan, Ukraine, Thursday, April 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
KRASNYI PARTYZAN — A bruised rebel fighter in battle fatigues is tied to a traffic pole, avoiding glances as a crude message hung about his neck flutters in the wind:

"I am a marauder. I beat up and robbed my countrymen."

The man's captors were not his foes, but fellow separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine.

In the maelstrom of conflict, summary justice has become commonplace in rebel-controlled areas, and it targets civilians and combatants alike.

Rebel unit commander Alexander Nazarchenko stood a few paces away from the humiliated fighter in the town of Krasnyi Partyzan. He said he consulted with superiors before taking such a drastic measure. The man's offenses, he explained, were particularly outrageous.

"He assaulted a civilian, stole his car, took cash from his relatives," Nazarchenko said. "He said he was borrowing the money, but that isn't exactly how you borrow money."

The victim reported the fighter to rebel authorities, who sentenced him to trench-digging duties — the standard punishment among the rebel militia. Undeterred, the fighter got drunk and stole back the car from the same victim.

His chin dug into his chest and hands pinned back with plastic cable, the man admitted to a reporter that he committed the crimes — and groaned for a cigarette. His eye was swollen and cheeks puffed up with bruises; blood had dried on his split lip.

These types of incidents are fruit of the chaos — judicial, bureaucratic and economic — that has prevailed in eastern Ukraine throughout the conflict.

Andrei Pasichnik, deputy head of police in Luhansk, the second largest separatist-held city, condemned the arbitrary justice. But he conceded that much work remained to get a proper justice system in rebel areas.

When officials loyal to the central government in Kiev were forced out last year, they appear to have taken much of the cash and resources with them.

Pasichnik said efforts are now focused on installing police departments in areas under nominal Luhansk rebel control. There are no judges, so sentences are directly passed down by prosecutors.

Things are slightly better in the neighboring Donetsk region, where rebels have fashioned a would-be breakaway state dubbed the Donetsk People's Republic.

In early April, the head of the top rebel court, Eduard Yakubovsky, said tribunals had only resumed administering civil, family and criminal cases three months earlier. The separatist justice system is modeled on the old Soviet one, albeit on a far smaller scale than earlier as money is short.

"Before, in the territory of the Donetsk region, there were 55 local courts ... employing 3,262 people. That's the size of a full-fledged mechanized infantry unit," Yakubovsky said at a press conference. "The number of judges has now been reduced fourfold."

That has provided fertile ground for kangaroo courts, particularly in areas under control of Cossack commanders. Cossacks are members of a semi-military group that traditionally guarded the far-flung outposts of the Russian empire.

Pasichnik said that anybody taking the law into their own hands and administering punishments such as whipping or even executions would face criminal charges.

"Vigilante justice? No. Only the law-enforcement system has the right to that," Pasichnik said. "The Cossacks ... did cooperate with us before, of course, but there were certain individuals that tried to create their mini-states."

That was a veiled reference to Cossack commanders like Nikolai Kozitsyn, a Russian national who ruled over the town of Perevalsk in defiance of Ukrainian and rebel authorities alike.

In an interview with The Associated Press in November, Kozitsyn explained that he believed capital punishment was a necessary deterrent to crime in unruly times.

"It has had a positive effect," he told AP. "We have no marauding, no burglaries or car-jacking."

Kozitsyn has since been squeezed out and is currently thought to be back in Russia. But there are still holdouts.

In Stakhanov, a town of 120,000 people, Cossacks are still in charge. A Cossack commander who gave only his nom de guerre, Borsch, explained how he dealt with drunks.

"We caught one drunk and jailed him for three days. We gave him five lashes," he said. "We then made him drink two cups of sunflower oil, and let him out at night and let him run back home."

  
Mr Druz said Ukraine's government was a "terrorist" organisation

Ukraine crisis: Rebel adviser 'admits executions'
2 August 2014

A senior adviser to rebels in eastern Ukraine has confirmed that extrajudicial killings have been carried out "to prevent chaos".

Igor Druz told the BBC such "executions" sent an important signal to the rest of the rebel forces.

He also said Ukraine's government was a "terrorist" organisation, committing war crimes against civilians.

Igor Druz is advisor to the rebels' military commander Igor Strelkov, and a senior spokesman for the rebel-held territories of Donetsk region. He is in charge of the ideology of the eastern Ukrainian rebel movement. In an interview with the BBC in Donetsk he outlined his vision of the so-called 'state of Novorossia' they hope to build here.

He says he is a strong supporter of Orthodox Christian morality and family values, and opposed to homosexuality. He hopes to legalise death penalty for the most serious crimes and he is sure that most rebels will support him in this initiative.

Mr Druz told the BBC: "On several occasions, in a state of emergency, we have carried out executions by shooting to prevent chaos. As a result, our troops, the ones who have pulled out of Sloviansk, are highly disciplined."

Sloviansk was a key rebel stronghold before it was recaptured last month by Ukrainian government forces.

Mr Druz said the rebels wanted to establish a socially responsible state that would protect Christian values.

He also said the Ukrainian government was "totally illegitimate".        

Mr Druz said: "These people have come to power by committing murders and staging an armed coup. Now they are committing war crimes. They are bombing our cities. They shell cities and then blame it on our fighters. This is nonsense. Why would we shell cities which are under our control?"

Refugees fleeing the fighting in the east have told the BBC they believe the Ukrainian government is shelling residential areas, and complain they had to escape at short notice with no warning from the government.

Ukraine rebels lay down law in illegal state
Published on Nov 30, 2014
Russian Eduard Yakubovsky is trying to become the new face of justice in east Ukraine. As "Supreme Court" president in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, he's now attempting to set up a legal system in this illegal state. Duration: 00:47

 

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