The European Court of Human Rights ruled in two Maidan cases — the authorities violated the rights of Roman Krasnianchuk and Vadym Kovalev during their detentions in January 2014 and did not conduct an effective investigation.
This is stated in the text of the decision.
The cases concern the beating and detention of protesters in front of the Cherkasy Regional State Administration on January 27, 2014, as well as the persecution and beating of students of Ivan Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University on January 20, 2014.
The court decided that in these cases there was a violation of the rights provided for by the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The men were mistreated by the police and the authorities failed to respond properly to their need for medical care while in custody. Also, the authorities did not conduct an effective investigation into the ill-treatment of the applicants by the police. All this violates Article 3 "Prohibition of Torture".
Paragraph 1 of Article 5 "Right to freedom and personal integrity" and Article 11 "Freedom of assembly and association" were also violated.
Now Ukraine must pay €9 000 in compensation to each applicant.
Roman Krasnyanchuk
Roman complained that he was beaten and illegally detained on January 27, 2014 for participating in a protest in Cherkasy. According to him, policemen beat during detention and interrogation at the police station. This caused Krasnyanchuk to suffer a concussion, a finger fracture, and hematomas on his face, head, trunk, and limbs. He was taken to the hospital only after ten hours of detention. Until February 14, the man was kept in custody on suspicion, in particular, of mass riots.
In June 2021, the Sosniv District Court of the city of Cherkasy issued a guilty verdict in the case of the Cherkasy Maidan crackdown. Valery Kostenko, commander of the Luhansk "Berkut", was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison. Currently, the Sosnivskyi court is proceeding with the case of Volodymyr Lipandin, the former head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Cherkasy Region, in which Krasnyanchuk is also a victim.
Vadym Kovalev
On January 20, 2014, during the detention of Karpenko-Kary University students who were returning from Hrushevskyi to the dormitory, Kovalev was beaten by law enforcement officers, as a result of which he suffered a concussion and hematomas on his body and limbs. He was placed in custody on suspicion of mass riots until January 22, 2014. Medics were called by the police only 12 hours after the arrest. Kovalev got to the hospital a day later.
Operative commissioners Ivan Haydashuk and Serhiy Kyrynchuk were accused of the attack on the students. The case came to the Podilsk Court at the end of 2018. In July 2023, the Podilsk Court stopped the proceedings against the accused Haydashuk due to his mobilization. Kyrynchuk was released from criminal liability by the Podilsky court (due to the expiration of the statute of limitations) in April 2024. The victimʼs representative, lawyer Oksana Mykhalevych, and prosecutor Yuliya Malashych filed appeals.
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