16 Nov Chinese student’s murder conviction violated his right to a fair trial

In the case of Zhang v. Ukraine (application no. 6970/15, 13.11.2018) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The applicant, Yu Zhang, is a Chinese national, who took part in the fight between four Ukrainians and a group of Chinese students, On 1 May 2009. During the fight, one of the Ukrainian men was stabbed and died three days later. The applicant was arrested and charged with his murder the same day.

A new Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) came into force in Ukraine in November 2012, introducing major changes. By that time the proceedings against the applicant had been going on for three and a half years. Meanwhile all the applicant’s fellow Chinese students, who had made witness statements favourable to the defence, had left the country. Relying on the new CCP, the courts refused to admit the statements as evidence as they had not been made directly in court.

The applicant was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment. His conviction was largely based on the testimony of two of the Ukrainian men involved in the fight. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial), the applicant complained that he had been denied a fair trial.

The Court noted that the case against the applicant had been built on statements by the victim’s friends and that national courts had chosen, without any explanation, to believe it, and had not interpreted any doubts in the applicants favour. In addition, the courts, relying on the new Code of Criminal Procedure, had excluded testimony in favour of Mr Zhang that had been given in the pre-trial investigation by his fellow students. At the same time, the Court noted that the events in question had actually taken place before the new Code had come into force, meaning the testimony of absent witnesses could have been allowed.

The courts at all three levels of jurisdiction had also failed to assess Mr Zhang’s pertinent and important points about the serious flaws in the prosecution witness evidence and about the alleged unlawfulness and arbitrariness of the exclusion of all the defence witness evidence from the file. Taken as a whole, the criminal proceedings against Mr Zhang had led to a violation of his right to a fair trial under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. Given this finding, the Court saw no need to examine separately his complaint about the length of the proceedings.

References from the offical website of the European Court of Human Rights