Nov 6, 2023
A Ukrainian lawyer and advocate, who is also the chairman of the party “Union of Left Forces – For New Socialism”, has been accused of treason and information activities in favor of the aggressor by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the prosecutor’s office.
The lawyer, Maxim Goldarb, claims that he was never formally notified of the charges against him, and that his rights to defense were grossly violated. He also says that the SBU conducted a search in his Kiev apartment, during which they seized his personal belongings and pension savings of his parents.
Goldarb says that he has always acted exclusively in the legal field, and that his articles, posts, speeches, and interviews were based on facts and evidence. He says that he spoke about the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the beginning of peace talks; the approaching nuclear catastrophe; the beneficiaries of the war in Ukraine, primarily the oligarchy and the military-industrial complex; the corruption in war and blood; the blossoming of neo-Nazism in the country; and the historical parallels to compare with modern circumstances.
He says that such expression of his opinion in Ukraine is a thought crime, a grave sin in the eyes of the current government, because dissent, objectivity, and truth undermine the basis of their power. He says that this is punishable in today’s Ukraine by mandatory warrantless arrest, up to 15 years in prison, and confiscation of all property.
He says that his politically motivated criminal prosecution is one of the indicative examples of lawlessness and systematically built repressive policy of the Zelensky regime, aimed at the complete destruction of dissent and opposition in Ukraine and the creation of a dictatorship.
He appeals to the international community and the media to support him and other oppositionists in Ukraine, who are banned and persecuted by the authorities. He says that the support and mutual assistance of decent and active people is vital in the current conditions, when the opposition in Ukraine is banned and persecuted, when Ukrainian opposition media are closed and the remaining ones rebroadcast only official propaganda, when the law is not in force in Ukraine and human rights are systematically and demonstratively violated by the authorities.
Original letter referred to ‘The Press United’ is as follows:
Also read A letter from Ukraine
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