Ukraine, Luhansk - The doorsteps of the
local court in the eastern city of Luhansk witnessed an unusual scene on
Sept. 12.
A dozen people gathered there demanded a fair trial for
a 20-year-old foreign student from Nigeria. Opposite them, a group of 5
ultranationalists demanded a death sentence, despite the fact that
capital punishment has been abolished in Ukraine.
Olaolu Sunkanmi
Femi has spent more than 10 months behind bars in pre-trial detention
for allegedly attempting to kill 4 local men with a broken-off bottle
neck. If found guilty, he could face life in prison in a case which
human rights activists say is a set-up.
On
Nov. 5, 2011 Olaolu and his friend were coming to their classmates’
apartment. They saw a group of 6 young locals in the courtyard. The
versions of what happened next vary.
Olaolu and his friend’s story
seem pretty typical for Ukraine, where racist attacks are far from
being exceptional.
“Olaolu says he and his friend were drunk, and
were coming to their friend’s apartment. In the yard they were verbally
abused by a group of drinking young people who yelled racist slurs about
monkeys, Africa and the like. When Olaolu replied angrily, some of the
group became aggressive, chased them and beat them up,” says Maksym
Butkevych, coordinator of the No Borders human rights center, which is
monitoring the case.
His friend fell on the ground, but Olaolu
tried to defend himself with the neck of a bottle – all that was left
from a broken whiskey bottle he was taking to his friend’s.
The
locals’ side of the story is exactly the opposite. Dmytro Lemenchuk says
he was attacked by Olaolu for no reason when he was leaving the
building. As his friends – Artem Loboda, Vitali Gaman and Inna Pashkova
- rushed to the rescue, they were all attacked by Olaolu as well –
beaten and cut with the bottle neck.
The prosecutor claims Olaolu
was running after each of his victims with the bottleneck and
threatening to kill them.
Why would Onaolu do something like this?
