yagnyata molchat - no krichat pro diktaturu - kak pechal'no
07/09/2003 | peter byrne
Recordings admitted as evidence as Feldman faces obscure new charges
By PETER BYRNE
Post Staff Writer
Lawyers representing imprisoned banker Borys Feldman have asked the European Court for Human Rights to examine a conviction they say was driven by a conspiracy to put their client behind bars for political reasons.
The appeal to Strasbourg was announced July 4, days after it emerged that a Luhansk court had agreed to introduce almost an hour of audio recordings made in President Leonid Kuchma's office as evidence that top officials fabricated the state's case against Feldman.
The recordings were authenticated by the Virginia-based audio forensics firm Bek Tek, whose clients include the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.
Viktor Aheyev, Feldman's lawyer, said Luhansk's Artem District Court has since February been conducting hearings on tax evasion charges based on allegations that Slovyansky Bank artificially inflated its operational expenses in order to minimize profits declared to tax authorities. However, the exact status of the charges is unclear.
"The judge hasn't said whether Feldman is participating as a witness or as a suspect in the proceedings," Aheyev said.
Feldman ran the Zaporizhya-based Slovyansky Bank from the mid-1990s. In 1998 and 1999, the Association of Ukrainian Banks rated Slovyansky as the country's most profitable bank.
Feldman was arrested in Kyiv in March 2000 for allegedly failing to pay income tax on a Slovyansky Bank loan to Ibris, a company he controlled.
The investigation was led by Svyatoslav Pyskun, the current prosecutor general who then was head of the Tax Police.
In December 2001, the Supreme Court instructed a court in Luhansk to adjudicate the charges.
Stanislav Lubyanoy, chairman of Luhansk's Artem District Court, convicted Feldman last April 19 of tax evasion, sentencing him to 5 years' imprisonment. Lubyanoy added another 4-year jail term for embezzling from the bank.
The Luhansk Appeals Court upheld the convictions in September.
Feldman's conviction on tax evasion appears to run counter to an interpretation of tax laws published on the State Tax Administration's Web site on May 8, in which STA chief Yury Kravchenko stated that "if a taxpayer-borrower does not report the amount of the loan received as net income, this is not a violation of tax law."
Feldman's lawyers claim Kuchma and Mykola Azarov, Kravchenko's predecessor, arranged with Vasyl Malyarenko, former head the Supreme Court's criminal justice chamber, to convict Feldman on trumped up charges.
The charge is substantiated by conversations between Kuchma and Azarov surreptitiously recorded in the president's office by Mykola Melnychenko, a former security officer, in February, April, May and August of 2000. Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and www.5element.net, a site founded by former parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Zhyr, made the conversations available on the Internet.
During the conversation authenticated by Bek Tek, dated May 24, 2000, Kuchma suggests that Azarov arrange for Feldman to be intimidated into confessing guilt.
"Put him in a cell with convicts," Kuchma says. "Let them pound him."
In a later conversation, dated Aug. 30, 2000, Azarov tells Kuchma that he has arranged with Malyarenko to have Feldman convicted in Luhansk.
"We agreed with the Luhansk court and have already acquainted a court chairman there with the case," says Azarov. "Malyarenko and I have talked about adding a bribery charge. We have discussed this there with the judges, whom we can manipulate."
Valery Zhbytnev, deputy chairman of the Artem District Court, ruled on July 1 to introduce a CD disc containing the May 23 conversation into the court record, together with laboratory reports attesting to the authenticity of the recording.
Bek Tek's report, issued on Jan. 18, said the audio recordings show no evidence of tampering or editing
By PETER BYRNE
Post Staff Writer
Lawyers representing imprisoned banker Borys Feldman have asked the European Court for Human Rights to examine a conviction they say was driven by a conspiracy to put their client behind bars for political reasons.
The appeal to Strasbourg was announced July 4, days after it emerged that a Luhansk court had agreed to introduce almost an hour of audio recordings made in President Leonid Kuchma's office as evidence that top officials fabricated the state's case against Feldman.
The recordings were authenticated by the Virginia-based audio forensics firm Bek Tek, whose clients include the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.
Viktor Aheyev, Feldman's lawyer, said Luhansk's Artem District Court has since February been conducting hearings on tax evasion charges based on allegations that Slovyansky Bank artificially inflated its operational expenses in order to minimize profits declared to tax authorities. However, the exact status of the charges is unclear.
"The judge hasn't said whether Feldman is participating as a witness or as a suspect in the proceedings," Aheyev said.
Feldman ran the Zaporizhya-based Slovyansky Bank from the mid-1990s. In 1998 and 1999, the Association of Ukrainian Banks rated Slovyansky as the country's most profitable bank.
Feldman was arrested in Kyiv in March 2000 for allegedly failing to pay income tax on a Slovyansky Bank loan to Ibris, a company he controlled.
The investigation was led by Svyatoslav Pyskun, the current prosecutor general who then was head of the Tax Police.
In December 2001, the Supreme Court instructed a court in Luhansk to adjudicate the charges.
Stanislav Lubyanoy, chairman of Luhansk's Artem District Court, convicted Feldman last April 19 of tax evasion, sentencing him to 5 years' imprisonment. Lubyanoy added another 4-year jail term for embezzling from the bank.
The Luhansk Appeals Court upheld the convictions in September.
Feldman's conviction on tax evasion appears to run counter to an interpretation of tax laws published on the State Tax Administration's Web site on May 8, in which STA chief Yury Kravchenko stated that "if a taxpayer-borrower does not report the amount of the loan received as net income, this is not a violation of tax law."
Feldman's lawyers claim Kuchma and Mykola Azarov, Kravchenko's predecessor, arranged with Vasyl Malyarenko, former head the Supreme Court's criminal justice chamber, to convict Feldman on trumped up charges.
The charge is substantiated by conversations between Kuchma and Azarov surreptitiously recorded in the president's office by Mykola Melnychenko, a former security officer, in February, April, May and August of 2000. Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and www.5element.net, a site founded by former parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Zhyr, made the conversations available on the Internet.
During the conversation authenticated by Bek Tek, dated May 24, 2000, Kuchma suggests that Azarov arrange for Feldman to be intimidated into confessing guilt.
"Put him in a cell with convicts," Kuchma says. "Let them pound him."
In a later conversation, dated Aug. 30, 2000, Azarov tells Kuchma that he has arranged with Malyarenko to have Feldman convicted in Luhansk.
"We agreed with the Luhansk court and have already acquainted a court chairman there with the case," says Azarov. "Malyarenko and I have talked about adding a bribery charge. We have discussed this there with the judges, whom we can manipulate."
Valery Zhbytnev, deputy chairman of the Artem District Court, ruled on July 1 to introduce a CD disc containing the May 23 conversation into the court record, together with laboratory reports attesting to the authenticity of the recording.
Bek Tek's report, issued on Jan. 18, said the audio recordings show no evidence of tampering or editing
Відповіді
2003.07.09 | chytach
What's your point? Do you mean that the dictatorship in the
whole country is less important then Feldman's case? Don't you see that this case is the consequence of the dictatorship? And that without overthrowing the whole system there is little hope for a fair trial in Feldman's case?2003.07.09 | Maксим
Re: Are you nuts, Peter?
There was such a guy - David Birn (or Byrn). And his band "Talking heads". He had a lot of extremely good songs. One of them had such a line:"Lies. Lies and Propaganda. Lies"
I suggest that Kyiv Post should take this line as the Motto/Vision on the front page. It would look very nice and it will tell everybody the truth about your paper.
Just have a look:
KYIV POST
Lies. Lies & Propaganda. Lies
2003.07.10 | peter byrne
Re: Are you nuts, Peter?
buty the hatchet, maksimHEAD: Showdown
SUBHEAD: Pro-presidential, opposition forces in no mood for compromise over constitutional reform as session draws to acrimonious close
By PETER BYRNE
Post Staff Writer
The simmering conflict between President Leonid Kuchma and Our Ukraine bloc leader Viktor Yushchenko has come to the boil in the last week with the two men swapping insults over their conflicting visions of how the country should be governed after presidential elections scheduled for next October.
As several thousand demonstrators gathered near the Verkhovna Rada on the morning of July 9 to protest food price hikes and the proposed constitutional changes, Yushchenko mingled with the crowd to explain the need to maintain opposition unity.
"We have closed ranks with the Communists and will vote with them against the president's plan," Yushchenko told supporters concerned that his center-right bloc was in alliance with left-wing opposition forces. "We are with the Communists and the Socialists because the goal of the president's reform bill is to split the opposition."
During the demonstration, several hundred supporters of Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc carrying placards reading "Hands off the Constitution" and "No famine in 2003" mingled with thousands of Communist and Socialist party loyalists.
Stepan Khmara, a deputy from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, said the number of protestors would double on July 10 when lawmakers were to consider sending rival political reform plans drafted by the president and a parliamentary committee to the Constitutional Court for review - a necessary preliminary to their adoption by a two-thirds majority of 300 deputies.
Yushchenko has never publicly endorsed Kuchma's reform plans, which were first announced last Independence Day. Kuchma initially stated that the reforms were intended to shift power from the executive to the legislature, transforming Ukraine into a parliamentary-presidential republic.
Opposition leaders are now strongly opposed to the presidential draft, fearing its provision to hold presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously may be used to extend Kuchma's term beyond 2004.
On July 3, members of Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc mounted the podium to prevent passage of the president's draft.
While Yushchenko was not among the two-dozen or so deputies who rushed the podium, few believe the onslaught and subsequent stand-off could have occurred without his approval.
Addressing the nation on state television on July 7, Kuchma called the confrontation over constitutional reform "absolutely irresponsible."
During the address, Kuchma briefly appeared to backtrack and even offered to withdraw his amendments.
"If the stumbling block is my draft law, then I'm even ready to withdraw it," Kuchma said.
However, he went on to blame Yushchenko directly for the impasse.
"People must recognize that parties fighting the reforms are against the dominating opinion of society," Kuchma said. "The opposition led by Our Ukraine - and Viktor Yushchenko personally - bear full responsibility for this."
Kuchma insisted the proposals included in his draft are not his alone.
"It also represents the position of the majority of Ukrainians who took part in a nationwide debate and the results of sociological surveys," he said.
Yushchenko, who in June called for a moratorium on introducing constitutional amendments until parliamentary elections in 2006, shrugged off the criticism the following day.
"Kuchma got too emotional," Yushchenko told reporters. "It is clear that his political reform plan was conceived in order to prolong his term in office."
U.S. emissaries may think otherwise. Kuchma assured them in Yalta on July 4 that he had no intention of remaining president after elections scheduled for October 2004. He said that the earliest simultaneous elections could be held was 2014, according to U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Pifer, who promised to pass on the message to U.S. officials.
Oleksandr Volkov, who managed Kuchma's re-election campaign in 1999, says it is power, and the perception of who holds it, that is fueling the showdown between the president and the opposition over political reforms.
"Failure to pass the president's proposals could be perceived as a sign of [Kuchma's] weakness," he said in an interview with UNIAN on July 8.
After meeting with Kuchma on July 8, the leaders of nine pro-presidential factions said he had insisted that his draft bill be considered separately from the alternative parliamentary draft co-authored by Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz.
Kuchma's draft law calls for holding presidential and parliamentary elections in the same year and would entitle future presidents to appoint the emergencies, interior, foreign affairs and defense ministers.
Anatoly Halchynsky, a longtime advisor to Kuchma, told Ukrainskaya Pravda in an interview published on July 2 that the ultimate goal of the political reform was to make government more accountable to the legislature.
"However, there has to be a strong president as well as a strong government and strong parliament," he added.
The parliament's draft would transfer the president's authority to appoint the prime minister to the parliament and would require parliamentary approval for appointment of ministers, currently a prerogative of the president.
Late on July 9, Tymoshenko and Moroz told reporters that opposition factions would block the work of parliament unless the pro-presidential majority allowed the alternative bill to be put to a vote.
"We will protest this by all possible and impossible means," Interfax-Ukraine reported Tymoshenko as saying.
"I don't think we have any other choice," Moroz added.
Our Ukraine's Web site reported on July 9 that Yushchenko would not rule out blocking the podium of parliament on July 10 if the majority refused to consider a resolution submitted by Anatoly Matvienko, a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc. Matvienko's bill would grant Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn the right to refer both political reform proposals to the Constitutional Court without holding a vote.
"If our position is ignored, then that means that the authorities are publicly and harshly going down the path of establishing dictatorship," Yushchenko said.
Anatoly Tolstoukhov, a deputy from National Democratic Party faction who was appointed majority coordinator, said in parliament on July 8 that any attempt to prevent a vote on the president's bill was doomed to failure.
"We are confident of our ability to demonstrate to the opposition that we are, de facto and de jure, the majority," Tolstoukhov said.
"We will follow our own strategy and will not react to pressure," Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying on July 9.
During a visit to Chernihiv on July 9, Kuchma was quoted by Interfax-Ukraine as saying that failure to implement political reforms before presidential elections next year would be "a step back" for the nation.
"It does not matter who becomes the next president if we fail to enact the reforms," Kuchma said. He added that the main goal of the process was to form a responsible government and responsible parliament.
"Parliament answers for nothing according to today's Constitution," Kuchma said. "And lawmakers spend a lot of showing off about how they are defending it."
If the amendments are to be adopted before Kuchma leaves office, deputies will have to vote by a simple majority this session to send them to the Constitutional Court before parliament ends its third session on July 11.
Article 155 of Chapter XII of the Constitution stipulates that passage of constitutional amendments must be accomplished over two parliamentary sessions. Amendments are deemed to be adopted if during the following regular session of the parliament, no less than two-thirds of the parliament's constitutional composition votes in favor of them.
2003.07.10 | Augusto
Пєтя, не дуркував би ти з горя!
Ніхто не забув твоїх танців на захист Кучми проти "поганих" записів, ти ж був афуєнний "експерт", забув вже?Як ти розпинався! Як дихав!
І що ти зараз белькочеш????
Я завжди і послідовно виступав на захист українця Фельдмана, наприклад в той час, коли ти за гроші поливав брудом все, що в Україні намагається рухатися до демократії.
Ну хто такому клоуну як ти тепер може тепер вірити? Ти набрав стільки поганої карми, що тобі в багатотиражці "Київська Брехня" прибіральником попрацювати має бути великою честю.
2003.07.10 | Maксим
Re: Very informative
I was crying