Ukrainian nazi collaborator’s medal annulled

This video says about itself:

25 February 2015

A German state TV documentary of the rising of Nazist ideology in Ukraine and the Ukraininian nationalist Stepan Bandera.

From Associated Press:

Ukrainian court annuls award to nationalist

17 hours ago

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian media are reporting that a court has overturned a decree posthumously awarding the nation’s highest award to a nationalist leader whose insurgent army supported Nazi Germany for part of World War II.

Ukrainian television stations say the Donetsk regional court ruled Friday that former President Viktor Yushchenko‘s decree bestowing the Hero of Ukraine award on Stepan Bandera was illegal.

Bandera was a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist movement, which included an insurgent army that for one period sided with the Nazis.

Yushchenko issued the decree weeks before his term ended in February. He called Bandera a patriot, but the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish rights group, said Bandera’s followers were linked to the deaths of thousands of Jews.

From the zik site in Ukraine:

Saturday, 03 April 2010

Local court in Donetsk cancels Yushchenko’s award to Stepan Bandera

A local administrative court in Donetsk today rendered illegal former Pres Yushchenko’s decree awarding the Hero of Ukraine medal to nationalist Stepan Bandera, Obkom reports.

A plaintiff in the case, legal counsel Vladimir Olentsevich, claimed that the medal can be awarded only to the citizens of Ukraine.

Bandera was not a citizen of Ukraine as he had died in 1959, or before 1991 when Ukraine became independent. Therefore, the plaintiff went on, Yushchenko abused his office

The board of judges agreed with this argument, confirming that persons who had died before 1991 cannot be regarded as citizens of Ukraine. The court then rendered Yushchenko’s decree unlawful and cancelled it.

The court decision can be appealed against within 10 days.

The board of judges waved off the appeal by a third party, Bandera’s grandson, to reschedule the court session until June, saying this would violate the existing court procedures.

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