Eduard Yakubovsky, a Russian citizen who favors the death penalty, is trying to become the new face of justice in rebel-held east Ukraine.
Appointed president of the “supreme court” in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in late September, the burly former investigator from Moscow says he is busy vetting judges as he attempts to set up a legal system in the state that Kiev and the West consider illegal.
Dressed in military fatigues, Yakubovsky, 55, is a far cry from the typical image of a staid magistrate in a gown and suit.
Photo: AFP
“Believe me, at a time like this, these are the most suitable clothes for the job,” Yakubovsky said in an interview at Donetsk city court.
“We haven’t yet come up with a dress code for the judges that we’ll swear in,” he said.
The justice system collapsed in Ukraine’s eastern rebel zones after the pro-Russian uprising began in April, with the rule of the gun quickly replacing the rule of law. Arbitrary and brutal punishments have been meted out by armed commanders with no oversight or accountability.
The UN in July accused rebels of conducting a “reign of fear and terror” that has seen people abducted, tortured and even executed. Since then, online videos and rumors have swirled of popular tribunals handing down death sentences at mob hearings.
Now, as the Kremlin-backed separatists tighten their grip over their territory, they are looking to give themselves the trappings of a legitimate state and greater control over the population.
Yakubovsky, who has a Russian passport, but says he has lived in Ukraine for 30 years, claims he is currently sifting through the resumes of judges and lawyers who once worked in the Ukrainian system and want to sign up to administer law under a new regime.
“At the moment, we’re going through all their documents before appointing any judges,” he said.
“We have to check the background of each candidate,” he added.
It is not just about hiring judges — the criminal code is also a work-in-progress.
Despite being in a fight to the death with Kiev, Yakubovsky says the rebels have accepted Ukrainian law as the basis for their system “when it doesn’t contradict with the our texts.”
They have already introduced new laws — most notably the re-introduction of the death penalty, which was officially banned in Ukraine in 2000.
“We have the death penalty and it will be applied,” Yakubovsky says. “For crimes against life, like aggravated murder, some military crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Until the new legal system gets up and running, it is down to local commanders to dole out whatever justice they see fit.
“If it is a combatant from our side who has committed an offense, then the head of military police decides on the punishment,” a rebel tasked with security on Donetsk’s streets told reporters.
“If it is a civilian, then it is the commander of the group that arrests them that takes the decision,” he said, refusing to give his name.
Particularly in their sights are drug dealers and users who they say are still operating in the region.
A man was recently arrested for taking methamphetamine and jailed for 15 days and forced to clean out all the prison cells, the rebel said.
Another individual, accused of manufacturing and selling “large amounts” of narcotics, has been in jail for three-and-a-half months awaiting trial.
Yakubovsky said that innocent people might have got caught up in the rebel dragnet. The problem is, he does not know exactly how many there are and when they will ever come to trial.
“It’s true that there could be some innocent people among them,” he said. “We’ll see when they go to trial. If that is the case, they’ll be set free.”
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS