On November 27-28, a regular Regional Forum of judges was held in Chisinau, Moldova, which was attended by representatives of the judicial and human rights communities from Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, as well as specially invited guests, such as Professor Michel Kazachkin, special adviser to the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Yanina Stemkovskaya, a human rights activist from Ukraine, took part in the Forum on behalf of UnMODE. She made a report on the fate of thousands of Kherson prisoners forcibly displaced to Russia in November 2022.
Currently, Ukraine is considering a draft law on amendments to the criminal legislation.
The essence of these amendments is that the term spent under occupation will be counted in the total term of serving the sentence. This procedure will be carried out through the court.
if a person has not served his full sentence on the territory of Ukraine, as a result of armed aggression and occupation, the court may decide to release him from further serving the sentence or refuse to satisfy such a request.
Following Yanina's speech, one of the Ukrainian judges commented: "after a correctly submitted petition, it will be considered by the court within the framework of the current legislation, no additional humane approaches to this category of citizens are planned to be introduced."
We can only hope for a law without "gaps" and the common sense of judges when considering these issues.