On September 9, 2024, the Council of Europe supported a professional discussion on the JustTalk platform on the topic "Presumption of innocence and secrecy of investigation: unity of form and content in the activities of different subjects". This topic was discussed in such a format for the first time.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has repeatedly emphasised the need for public officials, particularly law enforcement and justice officers, to carefully choose their words in statements made before a final court decision. A similar caution was highlighted in the ECtHR's 2019 ruling in the case of "Korban v. Ukraine".
The event was thematically divided into two blocks, one of which gathered legal professionals for discussion, including lawyers, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges. The other block involved representatives of the media community.
In his welcome address, the Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, Mr Erlend Falch, noted that such a discussion would be significant for any member state of the Council of Europe, but for Ukraine – especially during an active war and on its path toward EU membership – its importance cannot be overstated. Prosecutor General Mr Andrii Kostin expressed his conviction that violations of the presumption of innocence must finally become a thing of the past. Mr Mykola Hnatovskyi, a judge of the European Court of Human Rights, provided a brief overview of the ECtHR’s rulings on this subject.
The discussion focused on real cases from practice. The Council of Europe national consultant, lawyer Mr Nazar Kulchytskyi, drew attention to the fact that violations of the presumption of innocence by pre-trial investigation bodies are sometimes deliberate and intentional, which in turn leads to violations of Article 6 of the European Convention. Participants also attempted to create an ideal model for a newsfeed on the official website of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The event's partners and co-organisers were JustGroup and the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The event was supported within the framework of the project "Fostering Human Rights in the Criminal Justice System in Ukraine" which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine "Resilience, Recovery, and Reconstruction" for 2023-2026.
