Ukraine rape case sparks protests over investigation

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/girl-raped-set-afire-left-dead-survives-192052653--abc-news.html

Girl Raped, Set Afire and Left for Dead, but Survives

By Olivia Katrandjian | ABC News – 3 hrs ago

The lenient treatment of two sons of ex-government officials accused of gang-raping a young woman and dumping her body in a construction site ditch, where they allegedly set her on fire and left her for dead, has drawn protests across Ukraine about the seemingly slipshod investigation of the case.

The horror of the incident, which occurred earlier this month in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, shocked the country; members of parliament have called for Ukraine to institute the death penalty for the three accused men, and one suggested that the alleged rapists be castrated.

Oksana Makar, 18, said that on March 9, she was invited by two young men, ages 21 and 23, to their friend's apartment, where the three men allegedly gang-raped her, tried to choke her to death, wrapped her in a sheet, took her to a construction site, dumped her in a pit and set her on fire, according to the Kyiv Post.

The next day a man heard moaning coming from the construction site. He saw something moving under a charred sheet, and found Makar barely alive.

He called the police, and Makar was rushed to the hospital. Fifty-five percent of her skin is gone, her kidneys were completely burned, and one of her arms and both her feet had to be amputated, according to the Kyiv Post.

After undergoing surgery, Makar recounted what she could remember to the police. The suspects were arrested that day, but two of them were released soon after. A spokeswoman for the Mykolayiv prosecutor's office said local officials did not have enough evidence to hold them, according to the Kyiv Post, so they were classified as witnesses. The third man, who is 23, was named a suspect.

No one from the prosecutor's office questioned Makar, saying that she was not conscious, despite the fact that her mother insisted she was awake and able to talk, according to the Kyiv Post.

The young woman gave an interview to Gazeta.ua, in which she discussed the attack and how investigators from the prosecutor's office finally came to talk to her.

"I remember the bar and how we went to visit. Then I lost consciousness," In an interview with Gazeta.ua, Makar said. "There was a gap…I remember when I was choked. And when I regained consciousness, I remember myself lying during the night. I thought I would not survive. I could not feel my body. At first, I was screaming for help. But there was nobody there, I began to pray. I thought I had died. I remember it all as if in a fog."

After Ukraine's chief police officer, Vitaly Zakharchenko confirmed reports that the two men who were released are the sons of former government officials and a video of one of the suspects calmly describing the attack was posted to YouTube, where it was viewed 100,000 times in the first day, there were protests across the country.

The public outcry reacher Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who ordered General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka to take charge of the case. On March 13, the two men were arrested, and all three suspects are charged with attempted murder.

The women's rights group Femen, who stage topless protests against prostitution and sex trafficking, organized a demonstration in front of the General Prosecutors Office of Ukraine in the capital, Kyiv. They chanted "Death to the Sadists!" and "Execute the bastards!"

Click here to view photographs of Femen protesters.

"My child has survived. And this is important. Everybody counted on her dying. And that she wouldn't give evidence. But she survived," Makar's mother, Tetyana Surovitska, said in an interview with Gazeta.ua.

"My daughter is only 18. She hasn't done anything in her life and has already lost everything," Surovitska told the Kyiv Post. "Now my main aim is to make sure the bastards that hurt her are punished."

[1HappyGuy 45]

In a country where the former Prime Minister is convicted on trumped up charges by a politically appointed judge, do you seriously think that the rape of a young woman by politically connected men will actually go anywhere. These are dark days for Ukraine. All I can say is the people of Ukraine caused this to happen by believing a former criminal would be good for their country.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

In a country where the former Prime Minister is convicted on trumped up charges by a politically appointed judge, do you seriously think that the rape of a young woman by politically connected men will actually go anywhere. These are dark days for Ukraine. All I can say is the people of Ukraine caused this to happen by believing a former criminal would be good for their country.

http://news.yahoo.com/jailed-tymoshenko-accused-treason-ukraine-162400745.html

Jailed Tymoshenko accused of treason in Ukraine

By MARIA DANILOVA | Associated Press – 39 mins ago

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities stepped up their legal assault on jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday when parliament accused her of committing high treason during natural gas import negotiations with Russia in 2009.

Tymoshenko, 51, the country's top opposition leader, is serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted of abusing her powers during those gas negotiations. The verdict was condemned as politically motivated by the United States and the European Union and has seriously strained Ukraine's ties with the West.

Ukraine's parliament, which is controlled by President Viktor Yanukovych, voted on Tuesday to support the findings of a legislative investigation that claims Tymoshenko's actions "bear signs of high treason" in favor of Russia and to give those materials to prosecutors and the security service.

The contract, negotiated by Tymoshenko at the height of a bruising pricing war with Moscow, significantly increased the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas imports.

Parliament charged on Tuesday that Tymoshenko agreed to the price increase because a company she once headed owed Russia more than $400 million and she faced criminal prosecution on corruption charges there.

"These circumstances, without a doubt, testify to a conflict of interests and significantly influenced the decision of the prime minister of Ukraine in favor of a foreign state," parliament said in a statement.

Tymoshenko's office dismissed the accusations as "complete rubbish."

"The authorities' attempts to get rid of the main political opponent know no limits," said Tymoshenko spokeswoman Natasha Lysova.

Tymoshenko's lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, has acknowledged that a company Tymoshenko headed in the mid-1990s, Unified Energy Systems, did have a $400 million debt to Russia, but insisted that Tymoshenko has not managed or owned stock at that company for more than 10 years and was not responsible for the debt. Vlasenko also said that criminal charges against Tymoshenko of bribing Russian Defense Ministry officials have long been dropped.

Tymoshenko says that agreeing to Russian terms during the negotiations was the only way to stop a gas war that had caused supply disruptions in Ukraine and across Europe after Russia cut gas flows to Ukraine and European consumers. She accused Yanukovych, her longtime foe, of putting her in prison to bar her from parliamentary elections this fall. Tymoshenko narrowly lost the presidential race to Yanukovych in 2010.

Besides the gas case, she also faces a slew of other corruption and fraud charges.

Tymoshenko has complained of experiencing severe back pain in custody, but said prison doctors are denying her treatment at a specialized medical clinic as recommended by a group of German doctors who examined her and by the European Court of Human Rights. Prison authorities reiterated Tuesday that they intend to treat Tymoshenko in custody.

[slim 1,514]

Don't worry folks. The US isn't far behind.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Don't worry folks. The US isn't far behind.

I can't recollect a US political party ever imprisoning close to a 1/4 of the opposition. Yanko has taken a page right out of Tsar Putin and Lukashenko's book by wiping out the opposition by imprisoning them on trumped up charges.

I wouldn't think the US is even close to being what the RUB countries are like political wise.

[slim 1,514]

I can't recollect a US political party ever imprisoning close to a 1/4 of the opposition. Yanko has taken a page right out of Tsar Putin and Lukashenko's book by wiping out the opposition by imprisoning them on trumped up charges.

I wouldn't think the US is even close to being what the RUB countries are like political wise.

We do the same exact thing we just take a different approach. Instead of locking them up, we PAY THEM to vote a certain way or not vote at all.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

We do the same exact thing we just take a different approach. Instead of locking them up, we PAY THEM to vote a certain way or not vote at all.

You see the difference there don't you. Being paid to vote a certain way (a choice) vs spending years in a 5 x 7 ft. prison cell while your family members lose their jobs and are constantly harassed.

[slim 1,514]

You see the difference there don't you. Being paid to vote a certain way (a choice) vs spending years in a 5 x 7 ft. prison cell while your family members lose their jobs and are constantly harassed.

Being paid to vote a certain way is not a choice!

It may appear that way to someone on the outside (and even the folks themselves) but at the end of the day, it's the exact same thing. Why do you think their family members (and even the voters themselves) get the free money? Why do you think they have so much difficulty finding and keeping gainful employment?

They're paid to be dependent on government programs for their very subsistence. Until that changes, they're "locked in" to the current system just like Yulia.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Being paid to vote a certain way is not a choice!

It may appear that way to someone on the outside (and even the folks themselves) but at the end of the day, it's the exact same thing. Why do you think their family members (and even the voters themselves) get the free money? Why do you think they have so much difficulty finding and keeping gainful employment?

They're paid to be dependent on government programs for their very subsistence. Until that changes, they're "locked in" to the current system just like Yulia.

I'm still not seeing how that compares to being unwillingly arrested, locked in a jail cell and then being shipped to prison on trumped up charges with a bogus court, spending years in a 5x7' with someone else never knowing if your food is going to be poisoned or if your going to be beaten to death.

Being locked up is being locked up. There's no going to the store to pick up smokes, munchies...whatever, there's no going to someones house...there's no going anywhere. Your locked up in a prison cell. Iron bars, bunk, the whole 9 yards. It's prison. You take a dump while your cell mate is a few feet away. You go to the chow hall, or you have a tray put in your cell. You want exercise? You walk laps around a prison yard dressed in prison attire during set yard time. I don't see any comparison to here and there on that level.

[ONA 133]

You see the difference there don't you. Being paid to vote a certain way (a choice) vs spending years in a 5 x 7 ft. prison cell while your family members lose their jobs and are constantly harassed.

Well... there is a choice... People get paid in RUB countries to vote too. There are people though, who don't take the money - and that's when they are locked up.

As for "former" criminals... I believe 90% of world politicians are criminals, most of them just never were convicted.

[slim 1,514]

Bingo.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Well... there is a choice... People get paid in RUB countries to vote too. There are people though, who don't take the money - and that's when they are locked up.

As for "former" criminals... I believe 90% of world politicians are criminals, most of them just never were convicted.

If it only stopped with the politicians over there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky

Sergei Magnitsky

Bingo.

Being stuck in prison over there on trumped up charges vs making a choice over here on taking a bribe is kind of like comparing some yuppie Ivy League kids from white suburbia getting kicked out of school for drugs vs...being stuck in prison for years on trumped up charges.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Why_Me

[slim 1,514]

Being stuck in prison over there on trumped up charges vs making a choice over here on taking a bribe is kind of like comparing some yuppie Ivy League kids from white suburbia getting kicked out of school for drugs vs...being stuck in prison for years on trumped up charges.

Or, it could be like comparing the 50 million + people on welfare who will never get off and continue breeding forever and continue perpetuating the system of taking money from some to give it to others.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Or, it could be like comparing the 50 million + people on welfare who will never get off and continue breeding forever and continue perpetuating the system of taking money from some to give it to others.

I agree this country has a major problem in that area, I just don't see how it correlates with sold out politicians here, and politicians and whoever arrested and imprisoned on trumped up charges over there.

I don't see much in common with US politics and RUB politics. It's like comparing kids in Candy Land vs Dictatorship.

[slim 1,514]

Ever heard of Rod Blagojevich?