Staff Reporter
The request comes as a result of the perceived abuse of human rights and disregard for rules of due process in the so-called “Kokorev Case”.
In February of this year, members of European Parliament expressed their concerns over the case of Vladimir Kokorev, an entrepreneur of Russian-Jewish origins who was incarcerated on Canary Islands (Spain), together with his wife and their son, for over two years, with no trial nor formal accusation, and under evidence declared “secret” by Spanish Judge Ana Isabel de Vega Serrano.
Earlier this year, MEP Fulvio Martusciello held a round table in Brussels with the objective of clarifying the circumstances behind the arrest and the prolonged pre-trial detention, which he qualified as “shameful”, “xenophobic” and “hard to believe that has taken place within a country member of European Community”.
Following a formal complaint lodged by defense attorneys of Mr. Kokorev and his family before the European Human Rights Commission, another three members of European Parliament – Barbara Matera, Aldo Pariciello and Heinz Becker – have expressed their “bewilderment at Spain’s treatment of Kokorev” and called upon Spain’s judicial authorities to end this “horrifying human rights violation”, in a letter addressed to the President of Spanish Judicial Supervising Commission, Mr. Carlos Lesmes Serrano, Spanish Minister of Justice, Mr. Rafael Catala Polo and Mr. Emilio Moya Valdes, the Chairman of Las Palmas Court of Appeal.
More importantly, the MEPs have voiced their concerns that “The Kokorev Case” might not be an isolated event of judicial and police abuse in Spain, and more specifically, on the Spanish territory of Canary Islands. Among the infractions, the MEPs quoted “an undue use of preventive prison,” “withholding evidence from the defense attorneys,” “systematic ignoring if any evidence favorable to the accused,” “lack of formal accusation after an investigation that has lasted for over 14 years” and “deliberate procrastination of the investigation process.”
“Failures of justice or investigation do happen sometimes but the things occurring on the Canary Islands cannot be called a failure. There is a deliberate breach of basic rights of a European citizen to whom European laws guarantee the fastest possible and unbiased trial and a right to fair justice,” stated MEP Aldo Pariciello.
The special commission which creation is being called for concerned MEPs, is aimed to “elucidate the responsibility of certain Spanish public servants in the systemic abuses that have and, evidently, still are taking place in the so-called Kokorev Case and to determine whether such abuses constitute an isolate aberrant incident, or by the contrary, the abuse of police and judicial power in the province of Canary Islands is a more common occurrence that we would like to believe.”
