The case of Snizhana Kruhliakova
Snizhana Kruhliakova is the youngest woman serving a life sentence in Ukraine. She is accused of a crime she did not commit — the murder of her uncle and aunt, who were her guardians.
The court accepted the investigation’s version that the young woman killed her guardians “out of hostility over her non-traditional sexual orientation.”
Snizhana herself insists that her guardian, while drunk, first attacked his wife, and then, when Snizhana tried to stop him from stabbing her aunt, attacked Snizhana. She insists that she killed him while trying to save her own life.
The pretrial investigation paid no attention to many circumstances of the events that are important and point to Snizhana’s innocence, and the courts overlooked this too.
She was denied the right to a fair trial, and the presumption of innocence in her case was nullified.
The police and the courts focused not on establishing the truth, but on the fact that Snizhana is a lesbian — which, in their view, provoked the murder.
Given that Ukraine offers no possibility of early release for people serving life sentences and that its pardon system is dysfunctional, Snizhana’s only chance to prove her innocence and walk free is to win a review of her case on the basis of newly discovered circumstances that can prove she is innocent.
We have launched a petition demanding a review of Snizhana’s case and have already filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, but a long fight for the chance of a review in the national courts still lies ahead.