Murder of press photographer Andrea Rocchelli and human rights activist Andrei Mironov: preliminary results of an assessment of the effectiveness of the investigation

Murder of press photographer Andrea Rocchelli and human rights activist Andrei Mironov: preliminary results of an assessment of the effectiveness of the investigation

Online presentation of the international commission
On September 30, at 17:00 (Kyiv time), a presentation of the preliminary results of the work of the international commission, which assesses the effectiveness of the investigation into the murder of Italian press photographer Andrea Rocchelli and human rights activist Andrei Mironov, will be held at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. They died as a result of shelling near Sloviansk in May 2014. French photo reporter William Rogelon was also wounded that day.

 Last July the jury court in Pavia (Italy) found the Ukrainian National Guard Vitaly Markiv guilty of the premeditated murder and sentenced him to 24 years in prison. On September 29, in Milan (Italy), the consideration of the appeal filed by the defence will begin.

 The case has acquired broad international resonance and has extremely controversial assessments. Therefore, the Memorial Human Rights Center (Russia) and the Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine) joined forces to create an international commission to conduct an independent analysis of the effectiveness of the investigation. They invited lawyers from the Centre de la Protection Internationale (France) to assess the fairness at the trial. Representatives of the Center will attend the appeal hearing in Milan as independent observers.

 At the presentation, members of the international commission will talk about the work done to find answers to the following questions:

– What is the legal status of the armed conflict in south-east Ukraine and should it matter for the investigation?

– What were the legal grounds for provision of the court resolution and how conscientiously the evidence was examined?

– What social background in Italy was this trial conducted against?

– To what extent have all states fulfilled their positive obligation to investigate violations of the right to life in compliance with Article 2 of the European Convention?

Also, friends and colleagues of Andrei Mironov will talk about his life and human rights work, since in most publications he is mentioned only under the scant word “interpreter”.

 List of speakers at the presentation:

Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of the Board of Memorial, Russia

Dmitry Borko, Memorial expert, Russia

Karinna Moskalenko, lawyer, head of the Centre de la Protection Internationale, France

Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Board of the Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine

Katerina Zarembo, Associate Analyst, New Europe Center, Ukraine

Dmitry Koval, PhD in Law, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine

All members of the international commission work pro bono. We are confident that our work is extremely important both for the establishment of the principle of justice in this case, and for the memory of the dead press photographer Andrea Rocchelli and our colleague human rights activist Andrei Mironov.

Pre-registration is required via link https://forms.gle/gfKggNC5ccYWAtah8 The registered members will be sent a link to live stream. The working languages of the presentation are Russian and Ukrainian. Simultaneous interpreting into English will be provided.

For additional information: ccl.org.ua@gmail.com
Foto: Memorial