Investigation into murder of advocate Grabovskyy turned into a publicity move- UNBA

The Ukrainian National Bar Association was addressed by a group of advocates of Olga Grabovska, sister of the murdered advocate Yuriy Grabovskyy, who complained about a violation of their rights by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office.

Thus, advocates O. Drozdov, G. Boryak, Y. Solodko, M. Goncharov, S. Voychenko, G. Kolesnyk, D. Nazarenko, O. Drozdova and O. Volvak were refused to access the materials of criminal proceedings in view of the fact that it was not clear for the investigator Blazhko, where agreements on legal assistance were concluded.

"Until now, the advocates are unable for more than a month to provide proper representation of the injured party in the criminal proceedings, because they are not allowed to access materials of pre-trial investigation and they cannot lodge relevant motions to conduct the necessary investigative actions", - referred the defenders’ appeal to the UNBA Head Lydia Izovitova.

According to the advocates, the actions of investigator Blazhko roughly and cynically violate the guarantees of practice of law, which also confirms the fact that the investigator chooses advocates who are "useful" for the investigation.

"We have reasonable grounds to believe that the investigation wishes to refer the case to the court, having not invited the representatives of the injured party. Therefore, we request you to appeal on behalf of the advocates’ community to the relevant authorities in order to curb the violations of advocates’ rights in said criminal proceedings, since it concerns our colleague who was murdered exactly due to his professional activities, "- stated the appeal.

At the same time, today an announcement of TV reportage about the murder of Yuriy Grabovskyy was made. Authors of the reportage apparently had access to the case materials, which were denied to be accessed by a group of advocates of the injured party.

The UNBA President Lydia Izovitova believes that the publicity move on advocate Grabowskyy's death, which makes the Chief military prosecutor, has nothing to do with the professional principles of prosecution.

Creation of a movie about results of investigation into the murder of advocate Grabovskyy is contrary to professional ethics and aims of objective investigation of all circumstances of the crime.

"Unfortunately, from the moment of the opening of a criminal investigation into the murder of advocate Grabovskyy the prosecution was too much focused on the information component of the investigation, considering this case as a part of the information war," - says Lydia Izovitova.

The UNBA will shortly appeal to the Prosecutor General in connection with the violation of advocates’ rights during the investigation of the resonant case.