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A farmer in Ukraine says he will seek justice at the country’s Supreme Court after he was awarded 70 times less than he sought as compensation for mismanagement in the case of his stolen tractor.
The case involving Yuriy Tsaruk, who farms in Ukraine’s Rivne region, dragged on for almost 15 years and involved payments to police to continue investigating. Tsaruk’s struggle for justice was documented in an OCCRP film in 2019.Â
Tsaruk had sought $84,596 to cover the loss of his tractor and for damages inflicted by the law enforcement and legal systems. But a civil court ordered the government in April to pay him only the equivalent of $1,200 in Ukrainian hryvnias.
“They awarded 50,000 hryvnias for moral damages. It’s laughable,” Tsaruk told Slidstvo.Info, an OCCRP member center in Ukraine.
Tsaruk challenged that ruling, but the court dismissed his appeal this month.
Tsaruk said he would now request the Supreme Court to hear his case. If the request is rejected, he plans to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
“I want to apply to the European Court, but they tell me that I must go through all the courts in our country first,” Tsaruk said in a phone interview.
The civil court said in its April decision that Tsaruk had suffered due to “the excessive, untimely, and superficial conduct of the pre-trial investigation.”
“Over the past 14 years, both the claimant and his wife have experienced a deterioration in their health,” the judgement said.
Among other irregularities, the judgment noted that police officers had demanded Tsaruk loan them money “under the pretext of a speedy investigation.”
The ruling stated that, although Tsaruk’s tractor was stolen in 2010, orders to check whether it had been sold through vehicle dealerships were not given until 2022 and 2023.
The ruling referenced the 2019 OCCRP documentary as evidence in the case.
Tsaruk purchased his tractor in the spring of 2010 for $18,000, financing $8,000 of it through a loan. Just two weeks later, it vanished and his legal odyssey began.
The April court ruling stated that the thieves were identified by police. But 15 years later, the tractor remains missing.
