The Question Of Amnesty For Ukraine Rebels

What You Need To Know:

✅ Now that there is a ceasefire, there must be a balance found between national reconciliation and arresting the perpetrators of grave crimes;
✅ Torture is not recognized as a grave crime in Ukrainian national law;
✅ Oligarchs are already exerting their influence in on the ground investigations;
✅ Moscow is demanding total amnesty for everyone from the separatist side.

Maria Tomak, Сivic Activist and Journalist at the Center for Civil, says she agrees with Pavlo Klimkin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, that there can never be amnesty granted to those in the DNR and LNR who have perpetrated grave crimes like murder.
Moving forward, she says, will be difficult because there are problems with the Ukrainian laws and how they see grave crimes. For example, torture is not considered a grave crime in Ukrainian law, so it will make it difficult to prosecute those accused of torture from the DNR and LNR.
She says that the first step is changing the laws in Ukraine but she already sees that even doing the investigations will be difficult, because it seems there is a lack of willingness to do the investigations.
Hromadske International interviewed Maria Tomak, Сivic Activist and Journalist at the Center for Civil, on October 11th, 2015.