By Andrew Irumba
Former Ukrainian president Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovich has been sentenced to 13 years in prison over ‘high treason’ charged though he was sentenced in absentia!
The court ruled that the former Ukrainian head of state, who was overthrown in a coup in 2014, was not guilty of a violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but had committed high treason.
The Court in Kiev ruled that Yanukovich, who fled the country during the violent coup in 2014, has to spend 13 years in prison.
However, Yanukovich’s lawyers announced that they would appeal to international organisations, urging them to appraise the controversial ruling.
The former president, who now resides in Rostov, Russia, has repeatedly denied all the accusations, stating that the cases against him were initiated by his political opponents.
Yanukovich lost power following a series of rallies that resulted in the deaths of over 100 people.
Who Is Yanukovich?
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovich, born 9 July 1950 is a Ukrainian politician who was elected as the fourth President of Ukraine on 7 February 2010. He served as President from February 2010 until his removal from power in February 2014 as a result of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. He is currently in exile in Russia and wanted by Ukraine for high treason.
He served as the governor of Donetsk Oblast, a province in Eastern Ukraine, from 1997 to 2002. He was Prime Minister of Ukraine from 21 November 2002 to 31 December 2004, under President Leonid Kuchma.
Yanukovych first ran for president in 2004. He advanced to the runoff election, and initially defeated his opponent. However, the election was characterized by allegations of fraud and voter intimidation. This caused widespread citizen protests and Kyiv’s Independence Square was occupied in what became known as the Orange Revolution.
The Ukrainian Supreme Court nullified the runoff election, and ordered a second runoff. Yanukovych lost this second election to Viktor Yushchenko. He served as Prime Minister for a second time from 4 August 2006 to 18 December 2007, under President Yushchenko.
Yanukovych was elected President in 2010, defeating Yulia Tymoshenko. The election was judged free and fair by international observers. November 2013 saw the beginning of a series of events that led to his ousting as President. Yanukovich rejected a pending EU Association Agreement, choosing instead to pursue a Russian loan bailout and closer ties with Russia.
This led to protests and the occupation of Kyiv’s Independence Square, a series of events dubbed the “Euromaidan” by young pro-European Union Ukrainians. In January 2014, this developed into deadly clashes at Independence Square and in other areas across Ukraine, as Ukrainian citizens confronted the Berkut and other special police units.
In February 2014, Ukraine appeared to be on the brink of civil war, as violent clashes between protesters and special police forces led to many deaths and injuries. On 21 February 2014, Yanukovich claimed that, after lengthy discussions, he had reached an agreement with the opposition. Later that day, however, he left the capital for a speaking engagement in Kharkiv, coming under fire as he left Kyiv, and travelling next to Crimea, and eventually to exile in southern Russia.
On 22 February, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove him from his post, on the grounds that he was unable to fulfil his duties.
Although the legislative removal by an impeachment procedure would have lacked the number of votes required by Ukraine’s constitution, the resolution did not follow the impeachment procedure but instead established that Yanukovich “withdrew from his duties in an unconstitutional manner” and citing “circumstances of extreme urgency”, a situation for which there was no stipulation in the then-current Ukrainian constitution.
Parliament set 25 May as the date for the special election to select his replacement, and, two days later, issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of “mass killing of civilians.”
After his departure, Yanukovich conducted several press conferences. In one of these, he declared himself to remain “the legitimate head of the Ukrainian state elected in a free vote by Ukrainian citizens”.
On 18 June 2015, Yanukovich was officially deprived of the title of President of Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
