LGBT activists are going to picket the Kiev Court, which on January 22nd will consider a case against the radicals who attacked the March of Equality in 2015. This is stated in the statement of organizations that protects the rights of LGBT Ukrainians - reported the Gay Alliance of Ukraine.
According to the statement, the accused are people associated with Right Sector: 26-year-old Aleksey Protokovilo, 41-year-old Daniil Dashevsky, 21-year-old Kiril Wilamowskiy and 38-year-old Vitaliy Kirilchuk, who are charged with a violation of the Section 4 of the Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - hooliganism.
Activists reported that it was Right Sector that has to bear the political responsibility for last year's attack of its supporters on the Equality March, because on the eve of the event the leaders of the RS said they would not allow the parade.
"We will do everything, so that the people themselves do not allow holding of the parade in the end, "- quote the authors of the statements the words of the commander of the 13th reserve battalion of the VUC of the Right Sector Vasyl Malkovich on June 1st, 2015.
"The charged article was "hooliganism", although the attackers apparently acted on the basis of the fierce hatred to gay and transgender people," - believe the authors of the statement.
"We will organize a peaceful picket on the day of the court trial, demanding a public and transparent review of the high-profile case and decision of a fair punishment. We are far from the desire to condemn the attackers strictly, on the contrary, we call the court to humane sentence if the court recognizes the special social danger of hate crimes in general and motivated by homophobia and transphobia in particular,"- noted activists.
According to them, before the Ukrainian court interpreted the homophobic motive as a mitigating circumstance while considering the judgement but not as a factor to aggravate the guilt and punishment.