UHHRU: Released prisoner Hlishchynska may receive compensation from Ukraine

Olena Hlishchynska, released by Ukraine within the prisoner swap, may receive compensation from Ukraine. The lawyers of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) filed two complaints with the European Court for Human Rights about ill-treatment of Olena Hlishchynska in remand prison.

Lawyers Dmytro Mazurok and Olena Protsenko said this on the air of Hromadske Radio.

According to Mazurok, Executive Director of the UHHRU Arkadiy Bushchenko learned about the story of detention of Olena Hlishchynska, the director of the Novaya Volna (New Wave) TV company and aide to MP Vitaliy Barvynenko, from the Internet. Having read about the details of the case, he immediately suspected that the Ukrainian law enforcers violated her rights so he instructed the UHHRU lawyers to deal with the case details.

“I contacted her lawyers and found out that she was pregnant. I asked for all the documents about her health status. It was found that there was a risk of miscarriage, the baby was not properly developing due to improper care. That is why we requested the ECHR to apply urgent legal measures. At our request, the ECHR obliged the Ukrainian government to provide her proper care and transfer to a medical facility outside the remand prison,” Mazurok said.

However, according to him, the Ukrainian government waited until she gave birth and returned her back to the remand prison on the second or third day, the child was sent to a perinatal center. All the European guidelines say meanwhile that a mother and a child cannot be separated, especially immediately after birth.

UHHRU’s lawyer Olena Protsenko was collecting documents concerning health status of Hlishchinskaya.

“She had a lot of different diseases associated with pregnancy. Accordingly, you can imagine how the act of delivery could take place in the remand prison. Both she and the child had problems,” Protsenko said.

However, she said, such a situation is a consequence of the law requirements. After all, according to the law, when a person is suspected under the article on encroachment of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the penalty can only be detention, that is, only remand prison.

“So, our law forbade the courts and the prosecutor’s office to transfer her under house arrest,” Protsenko said.

Mazurok noted that the fact that Olena Hlishchynska had been released by Ukraine and sent to Russia had literally saved her life, even though the procedure itself raises many questions.

“It is still a question how they were changed, how the Ukrainian citizens were changed for other Ukrainian citizens, and what should be done with a criminal case being considered in the court,” Mazurok said.

According to him, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union filed two complaints with the European Court for Human Rights on behalf of two complaints of Olena Hlishchynska. She has all the chances to get compensation from Ukraine.

The first complaint is about application of the interim measures, i.e. when Ukraine was obliged to provide her with proper medical care. The second complaint was filed on the merits on June 6. It concerns the failure to provide medical treatment and the illegal imprisonment.

“Her two children and father have left here, we keep in touch with all of them. I think she will support her complaint, and the complaint against Ukraine will be considered,” the expert said.

As reported, June 14, Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia Afanasyev and Soloshenko were exchanged for Odesa organizers and participants of the so-called “People’s Council of Bessarabia” Olena Hlishchynska and Vitaliy Didenko.

Hlishchynska was arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service in April 2015. She gave birth to a son in the remand prison. She has two minor children more.

According to Ukrainian MP Serhiy Leshchenko, Hlishchynska, suspected of separatism, was aide to MP Vitaliy Barvynenko.

Adviser to the chief of the Ukrainian Security Service, Yuri Tandyt said that Hlishchynska and Didenko had been recruited by the Russian special services to destabilize the situation in Odesa region and establish the republic “Bessarabia” there.