STORIES OF CONVICTS

In 2009, the co-owner of the 4ROOM furniture hypermarket and two guards were shot dead at the hypermarket. Merab Suslov was accused of commiting those murders. In 2010, he was arrested in Russia, deprived of Russian citizenship and extradited to Ukraine.

The prosecution is generally based on testimony of the relatives of the murdered, who claimed he had received threats from Suslov.

The lawyers state that the case files contain no proofs of involvement of Merab Suslov in organizing, managing, financing, supplying arms and having any links with killers. After the pre-trial investigation had been completed, the case was submitted to the Kyyivo-Sviatoshynsky District Court. The defendant was not given the case files translated to his native language so that he and his lawyers could familiarize with them.

The court hearings presided over by judge Yuriy Burbela took place without lawyers and witnesses. After few hearings had taken place, the trial was declared to be closed for some formal reasons. Within the trial, the court did not examine all the versions of the murder and all the proofs in the case.

Defendant Merab Suslov was also removed from the courtroom ll the completion of the trial and was not given the right to participate in the debates and to make a last statement. The High Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases upheld the judgment of the court of the first instance, despite the numerous violations of the rules of substantive law and violations of the trial.