On the 2 of November 2009, the Ukrainian blogger and social activist Alexandr Volodarsky, known as
Alexander and his mate took off their clothes and imitated a sexual intercourse in front of the building of Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parlament) while a compere offered censors to make an expert examination of that action. There representatives of the press were invited to this performance.
The goal of actionists was to put the “moral” legislation, which contradicts Ukrainian Сonstitution and international legal norms, in a senseless and absurd light.
After the 3-minutes long performance Alexander Volodarsky was arrested, he was incriminated the Article 296 part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the other participants have managed to escape. He spent one month and half in jail, where he fell ill with pneumonia.
Broad range of violations took place during the investigation process: Alexander and his relatives where threatened by investigator, who extorted money by intimidation, didn’t admit a counsel, breaking the Ukrainian and international legal norms. Alexander was forced to work with a dummy counsel Sergey Bocharov, who actually acted like the second investigator instead of defending.Alexander repeatedly refused to work with this counsel, as well as wrote several claims, but for some reasons his requests were ignored.
On December, 18, after a group of activists appealed to the President of Ukraine, Alexander was freed on bail till the court.
On January, 4 The judge acknowledges the numerous violations during the investigation process, and the case is remanded for further investigation. But the prosecution resisted and appealed on this decision. As a result the Appeal Court ruled to send the case for a further trial, while the violations of investigator and counsel were ignored or considered as insignificant.
Alexander Volodarsky and his current defender Zoya Karpovna Shevchenko are going to lodge a cassation to the Supreme Court.
According to Ukrainian laws Alexander Volodarky didn’t commit a crime, set in Article 296 part 2: hooliganism must contain such motif i.e. an intention to harm or insult society. A political action cannot be evaluated in this capacity. Similar actions of other activists never end with criminal cases.
A criminal case, fabricated against Alexander can be explained only as corruption and mutual responsibility in law enforcement.