A number of public organizations are appealing to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky due to the order of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to remove Deputy Prosecutor General Gunduz Mamedov from supervising the Department of Supervision in Criminal Proceedings for crimes committed in the context of an armed conflict.
“We, representatives of civil society organizations and associations of victims of the armed conflict, appeal to you (President Zelensky) in connection with the order of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to remove from the list of duties her deputy Gunduz Mamedov of the Department of Supervision in Criminal Proceedings for crimes committed in the context of an armed conflict. By the same order, Iryna Venediktova first appointed her deputy, Maksym Yakubovsky, responsible for this area of work, and the next day, she reassigned the Department to herself,” according to the text of the appeal released on the website of the ZMINA Center for Human Rights.
It is noted that the decision of the prosecutor general levels the seven-year work of civil society organizations, the international community, and the Department itself and threaten the justice and restoration of the rights of victims of grave international crimes committed during the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine.
“In fact, it was the only department in the Prosecutor General’s Office, to which neither human rights activists, nor journalists, nor international partners had any significant questions,” the organizations said.
According to the appeal, the Department’s prosecutors require further support in developing specialized knowledge and skills, and “their development is possible only with the support of a powerful, experienced leader who understands the critical importance of these processes.”
“Therefore, the decision of Iryna Venediktov to remove an effective procedural leader and subordinate the Department to ourselves is overwhelming for us, given that she has neither the relevant knowledge, nor experience, nor conceptual vision and understanding in the field of prosecution for serious international crimes,” the public organizations said.
In addition, they said this area requires full and deep inclusion since it contains a huge amount of work in the form of more than 30,000 criminal offenses, a heap of legislative gaps, a lack of a unified and coherent mechanism of investigation and prosecution for war crimes.
“Due to the above, we appeal to you, Mr. President, with a request to ensure the independent and unhindered work of the Department’s prosecutors and their further development. This is the second time in the last year that Iryna Venediktova has unjustifiably endangered the work of the Department. For us, this is a reason for doubts about her professionalism, independence, and impartiality and serious concerns about the real continuation of legal opposition to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” the organizations said in the appeal.
The appeal was signed, in particular, by the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, the Diia Human Rights Center, the Crimean Human Rights Group, the Center for Huge Freedoms, the ZMINA Human Rights Center, KrymSOS, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, the Association of the Kremlin’s Political Prisoners’ Relatives, Vitaliy Tytych, lawyer of the victims, Center for Civil Education “Almenda,” Regional Center for Human Rights and others.
