On December 2, the Kyiv Court of Appeals is scheduled to announce its ruling in the case of Vasyl Hanysh, a former member of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, who was previously sentenced by the Dnipro District Court of Kyiv to 12 years in prison for treason.

Vasyl Hanysh’s attorney, Oleksandr Tananakin, told “Court Reporter”:

“I believe that the case against Vasyl Hanysh is a striking example of a situation where someone had to be ‘designated’ as guilty, and the trial court carried out this task one hundred percent. In my opinion, during the appellate proceedings, the defense completely refuted the prosecution’s case, which was based solely on assumptions and speculation.

The prosecution claims that Hanysh voted in favor of adopting the “Constitution of Crimea,” but no evidence to substantiate such a vote has been provided throughout the proceedings in this case. At the same time, Vasyl Ganyush was the only deputy who voted against holding the “referendum on Crimea’s accession to Russia” and, for this, received a 12-year prison sentence from the Ukrainian justice system. Is such a sentence fair and lawful? I believe that each of us can answer this question for ourselves, even without being a legal expert!

On December 2, 2019, at 11:30 a.m., Vasyl Hanysh is scheduled to deliver his closing argument during the court proceedings at the Kyiv Court of Appeals, and I hope that we will hear the appellate court’s decision on the same day. I invite all concerned citizens and media representatives to come and support Vasyl Hanysh in his fight against this hastily fabricated charge,” the attorney concluded.

Facts:

On February 14, 2019, the Kyiv Court of Appeals began reviewing three appeals filed by Hanysh’s lawyers. In them, the defense attorneys request that the former deputy be fully acquitted.

On November 9, 2018, the Dnipro District Court of Kyiv found Vasyl Hanysh, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea, guilty of high treason and sentenced him to 12 years in prison without confiscation of property. The defendant is also required to pay 5,389 hryvnias in court costs. Until the court’s decision becomes final, Ganish must remain under house arrest. This pretrial measure will remain in effect until the appellate court issues its ruling.

The court found that on April 11, 2014, the former deputy participated in the vote on Russia’s “Crimean constitution” and ran in the elections to the Feodosia City Council, which were held on September 14, 2014, under Russian law. The panel of judges ruled that, in doing so, Ganish facilitated Russia’s subversive activities in Crimea and committed treason. The prosecutor’s office assessed Ganish’s actions in exactly the same way.

The former deputy himself claims to be the only deputy who voted against holding the “referendum on Crimea’s accession to Russia.” He says he did not vote for the Russian “Constitution of Crimea,” and on the day it was adopted, he went to parliament for a personal meeting with the minister of social policy. Ganish confirms that he ran in the Russian municipal council elections. But he says he did so at the request of the local Mejlis in order to “draw votes away” from the Communist Party candidate.

Background:

Vasyl Hanysh was born in 1957 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region; he has two sons, four grandchildren, and a wife. In the late 1980s, he moved to Crimea, where he remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is described as a deeply patriotic man who speaks Ukrainian; in 1992, he was one of the founders of “Prosvita” in Crimea (Refat Chubarov was also present at the founding meeting of “Prosvita” in Crimea).

Vasyl Hanysh served twice as a member of the Feodosia City Council, as head of the city’s tax office, as a minister in the Council of Ministers of Crimea, as a member of the sixth convocation of the Crimean Supreme Council, and as deputy mayor of Feodosia. He did a great deal to help the Crimean Tatars and supported the construction of Ukrainian schools, among other initiatives.

Indeed, Vasyl Hanysh was present at that session, but he was the only deputy who voted against holding the referendum. There is a video recording of the vote’s outcome and Vasyl Hanysh’s visibly displeased expression. Immediately after the vote that same day, he gave an interview in which he stated that he could not support the vote. The editor-in-chief of that publication, Oleksiy Baturin—who now works in Kyiv for the magazine “Focus”—confirmed this fact and even testified to that effect under oath in court.